Missing Cat Checklist of places to search
CatInfo.net’s Missing Cat Checklist is a helpful guide that gives you ideas of places to look for your missing cat. Print it out and take it with you on your search.
Note: This checklist is designed to be used in conjunction with the information in the CatInfo.net article titled How to Find a Lost Cat.
After thoroughly searching a location, be sure to check it off the list. Search everywhere and revisit places you’ve already visited.
Do you have additional places that aren’t on the Missing Cat list? Please let CatInfo.net know via the Contact Us page or the Lost Cat group, and we’ll update this page.
Tip: When searching for a lost cat in your house, or on your property, open every door and lid you come across, and leave them open for several hours. If your missing cat is trapped, it can then wander out of its own accord.
Inside your house
The garage
Storage and/or old boxes
Washing machine and/or clothes drier
In a laundry hamper
Kitchen pantry and cupboards
Behind the fridge and/or freezer
Bedrooms
Underneath the bed, bed covers, and/or or inside internal storage
Wardrobes
The attic
High shelving
In or behind a bookshelf
Bedrooms
In, under, or behind sofas and chairs
Heating or cooling ducts if accessible
Crawl spaces
Cellars and/or basements
Behind curtains and drapes (is your cat lying in a sun puddle?)
Within your property
Garden shed (search in, behind, under, and between everything)
Greenhouse
Within a lockbox
Other outbuildings
In, on, or behind water tanks
Chicken coop, rabbit hutch, or pen
Down a well
Check an exposed pipe or burrow
An external cellar
In trees and shrubs
Check for holes in your fence
Could your cat have left in the back of a recent delivery or tradesperson’s vehicle?
Beyond your property
Your neighbor to the left
The property to the right
Neighbor behind and/or in front
Call and listen for your cat’s response outside a property if the owner is away (trapped cat)
Search the rest of your street
Surrounding streets in your search area
Check the roads for a sleeping cat
Under vehicles
Local parks
In, on, and/or under bushes and/or trees
Local school playgrounds
Culverts and drains
Abandoned buildings and/or building sites (if you can access legally/safely)
