Canice
05-14-2007, 04:24 AM
I've never owned -or been owned by- a cat, but there was a recent thread here about a missing kitty.
Being completely ignorant of the subject, I never opened the thread until tonight (and thank goodness everything turned out well). But in the interim I read the book "The Lost Pet Chronicles" by Kat Albrecht. Ms. Albrecht was a 911 dispatcher before going to the Police Academy and becoming a police officer, attempting to employ the search dogs she had trained. But there was little or no interest on the part of the police department.
Long story short, (and READ the book!) she went from 911 call center to civic police officer, to university police officer, to independent search dog handler (looking for armed thieves and missing persons). She eventually took the radical move of re-training one of her search dogs to abandon human scent and search for cats and dogs missing from their homes.
Using her experstise in police work involving missing persons, she eventually learned that there are similar tactics to be used in missing pets, and there are VERY predicatable responses in missing cats (more so than in dogs) and that most people can recover their missing cat quickly if they cease to make the common mistakes in these situations.
I am obviously no expert --I've never even HAD a cat-- but if anyone can use this information now or in a future search, PLEASE visit one of these Web sites recommended by Ms. Albrecht, rather than just staple up some posters or rely on your own best intuition as to how to save the kitty. Having read Ms. Albrecht's book, I don't think most people's "best intuition" as to how to reclaim a cat is very good at all.
Check out:
www.catsinthebag.org
www.lostapet.org
www.lostpetfoundpet.com
Being completely ignorant of the subject, I never opened the thread until tonight (and thank goodness everything turned out well). But in the interim I read the book "The Lost Pet Chronicles" by Kat Albrecht. Ms. Albrecht was a 911 dispatcher before going to the Police Academy and becoming a police officer, attempting to employ the search dogs she had trained. But there was little or no interest on the part of the police department.
Long story short, (and READ the book!) she went from 911 call center to civic police officer, to university police officer, to independent search dog handler (looking for armed thieves and missing persons). She eventually took the radical move of re-training one of her search dogs to abandon human scent and search for cats and dogs missing from their homes.
Using her experstise in police work involving missing persons, she eventually learned that there are similar tactics to be used in missing pets, and there are VERY predicatable responses in missing cats (more so than in dogs) and that most people can recover their missing cat quickly if they cease to make the common mistakes in these situations.
I am obviously no expert --I've never even HAD a cat-- but if anyone can use this information now or in a future search, PLEASE visit one of these Web sites recommended by Ms. Albrecht, rather than just staple up some posters or rely on your own best intuition as to how to save the kitty. Having read Ms. Albrecht's book, I don't think most people's "best intuition" as to how to reclaim a cat is very good at all.
Check out:
www.catsinthebag.org
www.lostapet.org
www.lostpetfoundpet.com