Will my indoor cat come when I call?

Maybe not, and that does not mean your cat is far away or does not recognize you. A frightened cat's instinct is to hide and stay silent, so call softly, then stop and look with a flashlight instead of waiting for an answer.

Should I put the litter box outside?

There is no research showing that it works. The Missing Animal Response Network advises against it because the scent may draw other territorial cats into the area where your cat is hiding. Time spent on a slow physical search is better supported.

My cat has been gone for a week. Is it too late?

No. In the largest study, a quarter of the cats that were found alive had been missing for three weeks or longer. Keep repeating the close-in search, keep flyers up, and consider a camera and a humane trap.

Should I check the animal shelter?

Yes, file a report and check back often, because hold periods can be short and vary by city and county. Do not let it replace the physical search, though. In the largest study, fewer than 2% of the cats found alive were found at a shelter or animal control facility.

What to do when your cat is missing

Q: How far do lost cats usually go?

Usually not far. In a study of 1,210 missing cats, the cats found alive were a median of 50 meters from where they went missing, and three quarters were within 500 meters. Indoor-only cats were found closer (median 39 meters) than cats with regular outdoor access (median 300 meters).

Search close to home first, and search in person. In the largest study of missing cats, half of the cats found alive were within 50 meters (about 55 yards) of where they went missing, and three quarters were within 500 meters. An indoor-only cat is usually hiding in silence very near the escape point, while a cat that normally goes outside may be farther away, shut in somewhere, or hurt.

Start close, and look with your own eyes

The strongest evidence about missing cats points one way: they are usually near where they disappeared, and they are usually found by someone physically looking.

A 2018 study in the journal Animals collected reports on 1,210 missing cats. For the cats that were found alive:

Half were found within 50 meters (about 55 yards) of where they went missing.
Three quarters were found within 500 meters (about a third of a mile).
83% were found outside, 11% inside someone else’s house, and 4% inside their own home.

The cats found outside were most often in a yard, waiting at the door, under shrubs, or under a porch or deck.

Almost every owner in the study searched in person. The authors found some evidence that a physical search improved the odds of finding a cat alive, although the result fell just short of the usual statistical threshold. The search methods owners rated as most helpful were simple: searching their own yard and the immediate area, walking the area, calling the cat’s name, and asking neighbors to help.

Indoor-only cats and cats that go outside behave differently

This is the most useful question to answer before you plan your search.

	Indoor-only cat that got out	Cat that normally goes outside
Distance when found (median)	39 meters (about 43 yards)	300 meters (about 330 yards)
Three quarters found within	137 meters (about 150 yards)	1.6 km (1 mile)
What is likely happening	Hiding in silence near the escape point	Something has stopped them from coming home
Where to put your effort	A slow, hands-and-knees search of the nearest few houses	The same close search first, then a wider area, door to door

An indoor-only cat that slips out is in unfamiliar territory. Lost pet recovery specialists describe the typical response as hiding in the first cover the cat finds and staying quiet, sometimes for days. Silence is a protective instinct. It has nothing to do with whether your cat knows your voice.

A cat that goes outside every day and suddenly does not come home is a different problem. They know the area, so something has interrupted their routine. They may be shut in a garage or shed, chased out of their usual range, injured and hiding, or taken in by someone who thinks they are a stray. In the study, cats described as very curious were more likely to turn up inside someone else’s house, and the garage was the spot named most often.

The first hour

Search inside your home thoroughly. Cats get shut in closets, drawers, cabinets and box springs.
Walk the outside of your home slowly. Look under everything a cat could fit beneath.
Prop open the door or window your cat used, if it is safe to do so, and have someone stay home.
Shake a treat bag or open a can, then stop and listen for a minute or two.

Move slowly and keep your voice low. You are looking for a cat that is trying not to be noticed.

The first day

Search next door, and the house after that. Ask each neighbor for permission to look under their deck, in the shed and behind the air conditioning unit yourself.
Go out again after dark. Scared cats tend to move when the street is quiet. A flashlight will reflect off their eyes under a bush or car.
Create one place for information. A single page for your cat means every flyer and post points to the same photos and description, and sightings arrive in one place. You can start a page for a missing pet in a few minutes.
Make flyers and hand them out. See how to make a lost pet flyer that works.
Report it. File lost reports with local shelters and animal control, tell your microchip registry, and call nearby vet clinics.

The first week

Repeat the close-in search every day. Hiding spots that were empty on Tuesday can be occupied on Thursday.

If you suspect your cat is nearby but will not come out:

Put food and water in a sheltered spot near where they vanished.
Point a motion-activated camera at it so you can see who is eating.
Once your cat appears on camera, set a humane trap. Shelters, rescue groups and animal control often lend them. Check the trap often and release any other animal promptly.

For a cat that normally goes outside, widen the search. Knock on doors, ask people to open garages and sheds, and talk to anyone who feeds outdoor cats.

What tends not to help

Waiting for the cat to answer. Call softly, but trust your eyes more than your ears.
Only checking the shelter. Do it, but as an addition to searching. Very few cats in the study were recovered that way.
Leaving the litter box outside. It is widely repeated advice with no research behind it, and recovery specialists warn that it may attract other cats.

If days turn into weeks

Half of the cats found alive in the study were found within six days, and three quarters within three weeks. The numbers thin out after that, but they do not stop. The Missing Animal Response Network reports from its casework that many hiding cats break cover only after ten to twelve days, possibly driven by thirst. That figure is field experience, not a controlled study, but it is a good reason to keep the food, the camera and the flyers in place.

A separate national survey by ASPCA researchers found that, among lost cats that were recovered, more than half came home on their own. Keep a way in available and keep someone watching it.

If someone contacts you saying they have your cat

Good news does arrive this way. So do scams. Before you send money or share any code from a text message, read how to spot lost pet scams.