Hello! I need a bit of advice. One of our indoors/outdoors cat has not come home for a week. He's usually the type to come when called, so we looked around the house but he didn't appear. He's a 1 yo neutered male. We heard some cats fighting a few days ago, could he have been driven out of his territory? If so, what can we do to bring him back? Recently, we heard a meow near the house, and his brother answered so we think he's nearby, but even food won't bring him out. What should we do?
Unfortunately my only real help is just putting things with his scent outside. Typically when indoor cats get out they can be attracted back home by using their dirty litter boxes, or beds with their scent on it, or a towel or blanket, but if the cat is indoor/outdoor, there’s less you can do. They may not use a litter box regularly enough to have that be a familiar smell. They may not have a bed that smells strongly enough like them, because their scent is located solely in the house. Their already familiar with the scent outside, so that desire for comfort with a familiar scent is less important to them.
The sad thing about indoor/outdoor cats is that sometimes they decide not to come back. They can get hurt by other animals near your house, and now they’ve identified your house as something negative, a place where they’ve been hurt, and the don’t want to be near it anymore. And to that point, when you do find him, you may have problems getting him to stay there at the house at all.
Try looking for him around the neighborhood. Post on social media. If your cats aren’t microchipped already, PLEASE do that immediately and register the microchips, that way someone can contact you if they find him. It’s going to be tough to locate a cat that doesn’t want to be found, but at least microchipping the remaining cats give them more of a possibility for a positive outcome.
You can try setting up traps if you’re really desperate, but you run the risk of catching and scaring other cats, which may in turn encourage them to leave.
Unless the cats have very specific jobs, like barn cats, consider transitioning them to be indoor-only, or indoor-only with leash-walking privileges. Cat territory can change as time goes on, especially with the influence of other outdoor cats (if a neighbor has one or if there’s a feral nearby). And while you care for these cats, eventually they may decide that your home territory is no longer ideal for them, whether they were attacked by another animal or cat, or found someone else who willingly gives them food.
Try to put things that might smell like him outside. Hopefully it helps. I really hope you find him.
