Wallingford kitty, Boots, has gone missing and his owners want him back home:
Please help us find our cat, Boots was last seen on 43rd and Latona on 9/23 at around 5pm. We’ve had him since he was a kitten and he travels between two cities with us. He is very playful and cuddly, but he DOES have a home! Please contact us with any information that may help us find our cat! (206) 915-2028 call or Text anytime.
(Click on the flyer once, and again to enlarge):
Not to be confused with Oreo-the-black-and-white-cat from the same part of the ‘hood?
I’m guessing they are two different cats. But now you’ve got me thinking about “A Tail of Two Kitties”. (I need to lay off the coffee.)
They are different cats, although Boots and Oreo look similar.
I am so very sorry Boots is missing… Did he have a microchip or a collar? That can be so helpful in getting kitties back home. Because statistically, indoor/outdoor cats have a life expectancy of only 3-5 years, I personally love to see cats live either indoor only or have supervised outside time. I see so many sad flyers of missing cats in our neighborhood… so hard for both guardians and pets. Please don’t give up hope that Boots will find his way home. I will light a candle for his safe return.
I posted in the forum section over a month ago about our lost cat Simon (also a b&w tuxedo). He was semi-feral and would bolt whenever anyone approached him. Anyway, with the help from our AWESOME Wallingford neighbors and Jan the AMAZING feral cat specialist with the 501(3c) Cat Tales (cat rescue and adoption), I was able to trap Simon in a humane five foot coyote trap after 29 days.
Definitely don’t give up. He’s probably w/in a 5-6 house radius of your house, unless he was chased away by another animal or person or was taken to animal control, etc. You’re doing all of the right things, posting flyers, getting the word out, canvassing the streets and talking to neighbors. Talking to neighbors was key for us. We received several phone calls with sightings which helped us narrow down the area he was roaming and also gave us a schedule of when he seemed to be active. Our dear neighbors also let me set up humane traps in their yards and check them throughout the day and night.
Marty, I agree with you completely. In a perfect world, cats would be able to roam free without having to worry about cars, raccoons, possums, other cats/dogs, predators, etc. We just had a three level cat enclosure built off of our second story window. Our cats LOVE IT! The company who made it for us is:
http://www.petenclosuresnorthwest.com/index.html
We are having another larger ‘catio’ built soon. Catios enable cats to enjoy the great outdoors without having to worry about safety.
Thinking of your family and Boots! Please let us know if we can do anything!
Marty–you are so right. Kris–those enclosures are awesome! It’s great you could do that for your cats. I’m glad to see that the manufacturer mentions that it keeps cats secure, and also away from birds. In the imaginary perfect world, those free-roaming cats are safe, and also are not killing songbirds or digging in neighbors’ yards or pooping on their porches, either. The outdoor real world of the city is most certainly dangerous for cats, but cats are a hazard, too.
Understanding Cats and Predation
From Alley Cat Allies website © 2000. Reprinted with permission.
While many studies have shown that cats do not have a detrimental impact on wildlife on continents, there are several who feel that cats are to blame for the depletion of songbirds and other animals. Two studies most often quoted are the Stanley Temple study and the Churcher /Lawton study. Some groups use these studies in misguided effort s to discredit our work to humanely control feral cats. Over sixty studies have been done on different continents all showing three very important points:
• Cats are opportunistic feeders, eating what is most easily available. Feral cats are scavengers, and many rely on garbage and hand-outs from people.
• Cats are rodent specialists. Birds make up a only small percentage of their diet when they rely solely on hunting for food.
• Cats may prey on a population without destroying it. If this weren’t so, we would no longer have any mice around.
Even though some cats can become efficient hunters and do kill birds, many international biologists agree that only on small islands do cats possibly pose a severe threat to the wildlife populations. They agree with biologist C.J. Mead that “Any bird populations on the continents that could not withstand these levels of predation from cats and other predators would have disappeared long ago…”
And finally, while many concentrate their efforts on blaming cats, the real culprit homo sapiens, goes free; continuing the destruction of habitat, hunting and killing, and using pesticides that endanger entire populations of wildlife, including millions of birds. The following is a collection of opinions from experts who have studied predation and who do not lay the blame on cats.
I posted the above about feral cats because I didn’t want them to get a bum rap. I agree w/you Fruitbat. I don’t want cats to be killing birds or using neighbors’ yards as latrines either. You won’t believe how many neighborhood cats, possums, raccoons and crows (and wasps!) were eating the food I left out for my missing cat Simon.
Kris-
So glad to hear you folks found your cat!
Thank you all so much for your comments, and suggestions, we have not found boots yet, however we are looking at every chance we get. Please feel free to call us anytime with any information. it is very much appreciated.
-The Reardon Household.
The statement about cats is from 12 years ago. Since then it has become even more clear that cats kill hundreds of millions of songbirds a year.
I don’t know anything about what data these studies may have turned up, but the logic cited above misses an important point about “subsidized” predators. Unlike the really feral cat, a domestic cat can afford to wait forever for its next bird catch, so there can be a regular army of house cats waiting for the next towhee to fly into Seattle. Some bird species do fine, others might not find the city suits their needs anyway, but with fewer cats it does stand to reason we’d have a more diverse songbird population.
Thank you so much Dennis! Michael, I will try to find more current studies. Maybe you can give me your email address so I can email you directly.
I believe this post is about finding a cat, not arguing about songbird populations.
Totally agree Jon. I am sorry I got us off track about the feral cats (which Boots is not). That’s why I asked Michael to give me his email so I could contact him off Wallyhood.
If you need someone to help look in the afternoon, I can help. Would Boots would run from cat loving strangers offering treats and smelly canned cat food?
p.s. I just wanted to address the songbird comment…
Boots has come home! I went to my back door and he was sitting there waiting!
Looks like he was stuck somewhere, hes lost a lot of weight and is pretty skittish, but hes home! Thank you all for your comments and help. If you see any posters we missed feel free to take them down! Once again thank you all so much
– The Reardons.
That’s great news! Jeez so rarely do you hear about these kinds of stories turning out well. Yay for Boots!
Glad to hear that! You’ll never know what adventure Boots got into, but so good that her survived and came home.
Boots is such a smart kitty!!! We are so happy for his safe return. I’m sure all of the things you did helped encourage and guide his way home.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
FANTASTIC news! Thanks for letting us know of his return.