Arlo, is there a reasonable explanation for sightings?

[poiuytrewq]

Arlo has been gone a month today. We get sightings without fail Thursday/Friday every week and for the past 3 weeks in the same place. A few swear blind it’s definitely him, other have seen what they are pretty sure to be him.
Is that not really weird? For him to be in the same place but only at the end of the week every week?
I’ve been at all different times and not seen him myself (I mean I think someone’s going to report me I’m hanging round so much!)
It’s a few miles from home by road and he’s scared of cars. However across fields not so far. There is s river to cross with only one bridge and one other possibility but would involve a nifty jump.
My partner has come up with the explanation that he’s trying to come home, hits the river (in the wrong place, no bridge) so circles back down. There is a fishery between the spot he gets seen and river and there is bits of trout head etc lying around for food, obviously water. Plenty or rabbits and mice round.
Why? Why is he only seen at that spot on a Thursday or Friday and why never when I’m there?!
We have put a few rabbit traps round but so far just catch hedgehogs! Very cute but not an Arlo cat

 

[poiuytrewq]

Also the other side of his apparent bit of undergrowth is a lorry pull in where lots of rubbish, burger wrappers and bits of food is thrown. It would make sense but the brambles and bushes are too thick to get in amongst and search. The busy road the other side and his fear of traffic maybe what’s stopping him going further in that direction?


Or maybe it’s not even him.....

 

[Meredith]

Does it mean that the people who know he is missing are only in that area at the end of each week and Arlo may be there all the time?

 

[poiuytrewq]

Well maybe some but these are completely separate people (6 of them not sure if I put that)
One lady and her daughter live next to the field, one a baker who was on her way to work (presume she works daily) one a guy who was running. One a professional dog walker. My partner’s bosses brother and wife (they tried but failed to catch him but got very close). The other I’ll be honest I don’t remember the circumstances but I think another walker.
So a random mix who are all local (within a mile)

 

[poiuytrewq]

Maybe it’s just co-incidence but we don’t hear anything Saturday to Wednesday, almost guarantee a sighting Thursday-Friday
Maddening!

 

[Leo Walker]

Could you take a day off and go and sit there with some really stinky food, and just hope he appears?

 

[Archangel]

Could you set up a trail camera in the field?

 

[scats]

When my cat went missing, she was eventually found about 2 miles away, where we walk our dogs every morning and every night. I hadn’t even considered putting posters up in that area because to get there it involved a major main road, a railway line and a lot of farmland and she just wasn’t a wanderer.
She had accidentally got locked out that night and we think she may have slept in the car wheel arch or under the bonnet and ended up being taken in the car the next morning to the dog walking location. She was found 5 weeks later in a garden about 100 yards from where we park everyday and her toes were badly broken, as if she had either clung onto something or been caught up.
Unfortunately we had to put her to sleep as she was elderly and so malnourished and dehydrated.
I’ve never got over it. The fact that we were probably within yards of her every day, twice a day, and never even considered looking for her there still kills me.

Could you camp out in that area?

 

[Clodagh]

As an expert it trapping cats (not really, but I have got 2) they didn't go in the rabbit trap, it was too narrow and small. you can get proper cat traps that are just a little bit bigger and they both went in straight away. I opened a tin of tomatoes in pilchards (just made a hole) and cable tied it into the trap.
I borrowed a cat trap from a small local rescue.

 

[splashgirl45]

what about setting a cat trap in one of the places that the cat has been seen. contact cats protection or rspca to see if you can borrow one. when pets go missing they do seem to get very scared so even if you saw him he may not come to you....i have luckily never been in your position but can imagine it must be horrible....fingers crossed he is soon home...

 

[elliejhb]

when pets go missing they do seem to get very scared so even if you saw him he may not come to you

Completely agree with this, our last cat escaped out of an open door (courtesy of the stepsons when they were younger). Baxter was a house cat due to health issues, looked for him and spotted him on a fence a few hundred metres away, shouted to him and he jumped down. When I got there he was hiding under a car and even though I was talking to him I was being greeted with growls and spitting. He made a run for it back up the fence but my husband grabbed him to have claws and teeth meet skin as a thank you. Once we cuddled him close to us he seemed to realise who we were, it's almost like his survival instincts had taken over at the time and he was in defence mode.

 

[Blanche]

I can't give any explanation as to why he may be only seen on those days. I would try and get a wildlife camera and set it up where he has been seen on the days he is seen. If nothing else you will, hopefully, be able to say whether or not it is your cat. I would also get a bigger trap. Cat Protection will lend you one, or they use to, with a refundable deposit. I don't know where you are but there may be someone close to you on here that has one you could borrow. I have one if you are close. You could also try leaving some clothing( unwashed) of yours, like a t shirt close to where you put a camera to see if that may draw him out of hiding.

 

[DSB]

We moved house/farm last year and brought the elderly fluffy stable cat and her off sider BK with us.We had inherited at the new place a shed cat,who was a happy little thing.So as we had no where to shut then up,we let them out,resident cat said piss off and they did.We left feed out but no sign of them.Four months later,got a call from the vets to say he had been living about six miles away,cross country.Picked him up and shut him in with the hens for five days,no one was impressed but he has now become a very friendly house cat and stays at home.Sadly no sign of old fluffy cat.Good Luck with your search for Arlo.BK was returned as he was microchipped.

 

[Ellietotz]

Any news for Arlo yet?

 

[poiuytrewq]

No. Not really. I’m still getting the same sightings, still catching the same two hedgehogs in the traps, still trawling round looking and waiting for a call.
He’s chipped so I just hope that it does it’s job one day