Still missing, still searching 1 year later

June 13, 2012

Washington, Iowa

To the Editor:

My housecat Tasha vanished a year ago, she is still missing and I am still searching!

Many people think ?lost cats? can find their way back home. The truth is cats can be lost in their neighbors? yard. Most cats are found within five houses away, unless they have been taken elsewhere. One very scared cat was found a year after it disappeared living underneath a neighbor?s porch. I found a cat last winter that was lost five blocks away from his home. We never found the owner of the spayed, de-clawed cat living in the sewer that we found slowly starving to death. It doesn?t matter if it is one house, five blocks or 10 miles away from home ? they may not be able to make it back home. Every cat and circumstance will be different. There are so many variables ? was it a house cat or an outdoor cat, how long had it lived at the place it disappeared from, is it social or is it afraid of strangers? Many indoor cats will appear ?feral like? after getting outside.

It is a misconception that ?they can find their way home? or ?they will go home if they want to,? not knowing the cat or the circumstances that got them to where they are. It may not be possible for them to get back home, especially if they were transported out of the area. Unfortunately, many people presume that the new cat in their neighborhood or farm is a ?homeless cat? or a ?feral cat,? instead of ?someone?s scared missing pet.? They presume that if it?s too far for the cat to walk, it couldn?t be the ?missing cat.? You can?t tell just from looking at a cat what has happened to it, where it has come from or how it got there. Pets have been being dumped for years and they still are. Many animals are being live-trapped when they walk onto someone else?s property and they are taken out of the area. Accidents do happen; pets do get out. There are humane alternatives that can and should be done if someone ?wants to get rid of? animals that have wandered on their property. I don?t know how she got out or what happened since she got out, where she is now or how she got there. It really doesn?t matter. All that matters is that I find her and get her safely back home!

I have pictures of Tasha at the Washington, Fairfield and Iowa City animal shelters. If you have seen or been caring for a gray longer-haired cat in the last year or know anyone who has, even if it?s out in the country, another town or county, please call me at 319-361-7827.

Brenda Starr