Louise Davies, from Cheltenham, is a woman that deserves your attention. After losing her own Bengal cat, and thankfully being reunited again, Louise decided she wanted to help other people find their lost kitties. Her services expand further than Gloucestershire as she’s so committed to helping owners find their cats, regardless of location.
Louise runs the Missing and Found Pets in Gloucestershire page on Facebook and is administrator on a further 44 lost and found cat groups on the popular social network. She posts in the groups but that’s not all. Two hours of her day is spent out and about, attending to cats in need, feeding lost cats and scanning the cats for microchips. When possible, Louise will take a lost cat and reunite it with the owner. Sadly, it’s not always a happy ending as she will also contact families to inform them of fatalities or injuries too.
Reuniting the cats with their owners can be a very long process and it’s not always possible. Louise has a microchip scanner and has access to the microchip database, but sometimes that’s not enough. Not all cats are microchipped and often owners forget to update the information on the microchip when they relocate. Furthermore, some of the lost cats are too scared or confused to allow Louise close enough to scan them. The cats are in survival mode and it can take Louise many weeks to build up enough trust to get close enough for a scan. Louise advises “…it’s so important to get them microchipped because it’s proof of ownership and makes it so much easier to reunite them with their families”. She also has this advice for anyone who has lost their cat:
- Look for your cat between 2 and 5am
- Wear worn clothes that have your smell on them
- Bring tuna!
Lost cats will often hide and shy away from humans. They’re much more likely to come out at night when it’s quieter. We also have some advice on what you can do if you lose your cat, click here to read our article ‘8 Steps to Take When Your Cat Goes Missing’.