do neutered cats roam?

sex panther

so my tom cat is gone since monday night and im freaking out ive been all over the place looking for him but still no sign of him.

My friend is like 'so what? cats roam all the time' but i dont know he's neutered,is that normal?

he and his sister are kept indoors at night but when i was going to bed on monday night i waited up till late and then left the window open for him. he comes and goes by day but he's never been out all night,
he's a total pet i dunno could he survive on his own!

morganafay

Yeah it's normal, even for neutered cats. One of my neutered females disappeared for a week, then came back for a few days, then went away for a few days and came back yesterday.

I hope he comes back soon, try not to worry too much yet.

If he doesn't then I'd put up some posters around the place and in shops with a photo of him if you have one. I did that when my kitten went missing and someone found her and called us.

Good luck

MsFifers

I think it depends on the personality of the cat. Maybe you should put up some posters now to be on the safe side, since he's never done it before.

I hope you find him. I know how horrible it is when a cat goes missing!

sex panther

ya ive put up loads of posters today, im sick in my stomach thinking that he's lost or something and cant find his way home. and its raining today and he would never be out in the rain if he could help it!

Ado86

Hope he comes home soon. That feeling of not knowing what happens is awful.

magnumlady

I hope he comes home soon. We had a neutered Tom and he roamed a few times. He was gone for two weeks once, but he came back.

The Sweeper

All cats that are not restricted to your property will roam, whether or not they are sexually intact. Intact tom cats will roam miles and miles in search of a female in season. Neutered males and females will still roam, but just not quite so far.

The problem is they are at great risk when they roam. You have literally no control over what will happen to your cat if you do not restrict them to your property, either by cat-proofing your yard or keeping them indoors. This is especially relevant in urban situations, where your cat only has to go 50 metres in any direction to be in someone else's yard, or shed, or garage, or on the main road.

If you do not have the facility, the resources or the will to restrict your cat's roaming then you will, absolutely definitely 100%, at some point, spend hours, days, weeks or months wondering what happened to your cat and why it hasn't come home.

You can make your life a little easier by recognising that your cat is crepuscular, meaning it will be most active at dawn and twilight. By bringing your cat home in the evening, keeping him inside all night, and only allowing him out again after sun-up, you will restrict the amount of roaming the cat actually feels like doing.

If you're wondering how the hell you bring a cat home, cats are very schedule-orientated. They like familiar things to happen at a certain time each day. You can use this to your advantage by scheduling two set feeds a day.

This means you can either keep your cat in all night, through dusk and dawn, and let it out all day, or you can let your cat out twice a day, once before breakfast, have it come home for breakfast, and then let it out again in the afternoon and have it come home for supper (more practical in the summer when there's late light). This only works if no other bugger is feeding your cat (which is another reason why it's important not to feed other people's cats).

If he hasn't come back yet and you're worried about him, you need to:

Make up fliers for letterboxes and post them around everyone who lives around you. If you're in an urban area, I'd do 100 fliers and post the 100 houses nearest, paying special attention to neighbours, across the road and anyone you back onto, as opposed to just doing the 50 houses on each side of your house. Make sure the fliers have a picture of the cat, mention of any distinguishing markings, and a plea to phone even if they've only sighted him and even if it's bad news. On the flier, ask people to please check their garden sheds and garages on their properties in case he's been locked in somewhere.

Then ring the closest vet clinics to you and put in a description of him and ask if they've seen or heard anything, and leave your number.

Call your local council and ask for numbers for their animal control unit, and speak to someone in that unit regarding where a cat might be taken, if they use a pound, so on. Also ask them what the story is with animals who may have been injured on the road, and how you can check on that.

This is important - if your cat is a black cat, and the pound say 'well we have two black cats but neither of them match your description' go and check yourself. The pound staff's version of 'small', 'skinny', 'friendly' could be different to yours, and also the cat could have lost a collar or something if you're saying it had a tartan collar and they're looking at a collarless cat. You get the idea. Look yourself.

Make up larger versions of the letterbox flier, and ask at the supermarket and petrol station if you can put them up. Even put them up in the local newsagents and pubs.

Also go looking in the gardens along your street, checking areas under hedges and bushes. If there are open spaces, fields or vacant lots near your place, see if you can borrow a friend's dog and walk the dog in those spaces - a dog will scent and locate a hidden cat far better than you will, because if your cat is injured or frightened, he'll most probably stay quiet even if you walk two feet past his hiding space, because that's what cats are like.

Good luck finding him.

sex panther

sweeper thanks a million for all the advice,

and its good to know that that other cats have come home it gives me hope.

i have almost all of it done... fliers in neighbors house, shops, post office, ive rang the pound and local vets, i have him put up on 2 lost and found websites etc etc but still no sign of him. I am driven mad thinking about him. Please god he'll come home soon, ill keep ye posted. thanks again

sex panther

he's home!!!!!!!! my room mate was watching a movie (at 4:30am) and heard some crazy meowing, the widow was open but he was in such a tizzy i dont think he realised. He's soaking wet and very hungry but thank god he's ok!

I think im gona put your advice into action sweeper and never let him out in the dawn or dusk again, wow this has made my week now i can concentrate on getting a college place! Thanks for your help guys!:)