A little bit of advice for those who are moving this year. As we all know the abandonment rates are really high, (sadly we are the worst in Canada for this), but there’s also another phenomenon, and that is cats that get lost during the move. It’s incredibly stressful for pets to change environments so it’s important to keep them safe during the packing up of your old house, and unpacking in the new. The biggest mistake some people might make is letting kitty out to explore it’s new territory as soon as they arrive in their new home. Because the old location is so strongly imprinted, the cat then gets lost trying to return to it’s familiar territory. This can lead to the cat getting hopelessly and dangerously lost in between the two locations. It’s recommended to let your cat get used to the new house slowly, which can take weeks. It’ll probably demand to go out even more adamantly, but that should be all the more reason to resist. What he’ll do is rub his face on objects and furniture when he feels safe, leaving his scent. You can even help the process by rubbing your cats muzzle and head with a soft cloth and transferring the scent from his glands onto the new home, on doorjambs, walls and furniture that are at cat level.
And because there are a ridiculous amount of pets abandoned, especially in the summer, it’s all the more important to have a collar and tags on your furry friends, so that there’s no doubt as to your desire to keep them safe!
I’ve been getting really positive feedback so far on the Petluck blog as well as some really good advice. As well as checking the sites I’ve listed it’s a good idea to put notices in your local veterinary hospitals and see if they’ve maybe been brought in to be examined., and check with shelters and rescues to see if anyone has turned in your animal there,
I received a nice email from Nancy at the Hôpital Vétérinaire Lasalle who along with some new links that I’ve added on the side, has offered some good information for people in that area. Below is a part of the message she sent.
I work at Hôpital Vétérinaire Lasalle where we are also the collection center for strays, surrendered, abandoned and unclaimed cats and dogs. If you receive an email of someone who has lost a cat or a dog in the Lasalle, Verdun or Lachine area, would you be kind enough to direct them to us as we may have their pets. They can contact me at 514-607-7711. When dogs are not claimed, they are transferred to non profit rescue organizations for adoption and unclaimed cats are put up for adoption on our petfinder webpage petfinder.com/shelters/QC51.html and others transferred to other non profit organizations.
I will always keep looking for their little faces in the lost section of classifieds but that would really help if you could tell about our existence.
I always look for lost pets hoping to find the owners of our homeless pets but I find that many people just don’t know where to look and end up giving up looking. We have unclaimed cats sterilized and declawed! I just can’t believe that nobody is coming for them!
Thanks for the great advice Nancy!
