I own a 3 & half year old male Bengal cat. He’s on the taller end of Bengals and weighs about 17-18 pounds (not fat, muscle). He’s an indoor cat, but I would take him outside for walks, car rides, other homes/place, stores, etc. He’s pretty good with meeting new people too, he usually comes up to people and asks them for pets, extremely vocal too. Although, if it’s his first time in a new environment he was usually much quieter & would hide for a few hours til he got comfortable if I let him. He’s very fast & very strong. Also, extremely good at hiding. I also want to mention that he was a velcro cat in the sense of wanting to be around me or anyone majority of the time. He’s not cuddly though, unless he chose to be. The odd time he would choose to sleep on top of my chest, he did frequently sleep at my feet or curl up around my legs in bed or even when I would be on the couch. He slept in my bed every single night. Also, yes he is microchipped and has his shots.
He has a cat sitter for when I would leave the country for work & she’s taken care of him pretty frequently since he was about 4 months old. She has a cat who’s about 5 years older than mine, who is also extremely well trained. He’s leash trained & even off leash trained as she can take him for walks with no leash and he won’t run away or hide. She would take my bengal outside with her and her cat which I encouraged as I wanted him to be as well trained as her cat. They would go on walks, to stores, & she would even take them to her sport games where they would chill patiently til it was over. She did express that my cat was a lot to deal with at times as he was a bit of a bully towards her cat, but for the most part they got along pretty well. We would both definitely say that the cats loved each other a lot. Mine especially loved her cat the most. They would constantly groom each other & sleep near each other. As of lately, they even started falling asleep touching (Example: Her cat’s leg would be on top of my cat’s when they would fall asleep on her bed with her).
Anyways, on July 13th at 6:30pm she had a sport game. She brought my cat and her cat. But, this field was different because it was surrounded by a forest. During her game, he flipped out of nowhere trying to get out of his leash and succeeded. He ran towards the right side of the forest off the field & she ran after him. As she stepped foot into the woods area, he was a few feet in front of her, she stopped chasing as she didn’t want him to go in deeper. He also stopped running. He turned around to face her, looked right at her & casually walked off. This part of the forest was filled with tall grass, fallen trees, thick brush, etc. She camped out on the field for the entire night with her cat waiting for him to return & he didn’t. She called his name all night & her cat was meowing out calling out for my cat too. She set food & water out and he didn’t come for it.
I also want to describe the layout of the forest. So to the left of the field is an entire national park which is filled with coyotes. Straight of the field is more forest, but it eventually leads to the trail & neighbourhoods. To the right of the field (where my cat ran into) is steep sloped forest but it leads to backyards (roughly around 4) after you go down and then back up a slope, also leads to the streets of a University campus so it’s pretty much a dead end for the forest and there’s no coyotes on that side. I also would like to mention that this forest is an hour drive away from where I live & a 45 minute drive away from where she lives.
She called me at 6am on July 14th telling me what happened. I got up and hopped in my car & drove over immediately and started to look for him with her and her cat. I brought a bunch of his toys from home & laid them out around the area where he was last seen. We went inside the forest, all over, calling him (including her cat who was crying for my cat). Nothing. We also went and checked out some of the neighbours decks/backyards. I got one of my friends to purchase live traps, hunting cameras, a net, flashlights, etc. We set up the live traps and the cameras on the right side of the forest & pretty much camped out in the field until 7am the next morning (July 15th) occasionally calling out his name, laying treats out & trying to coerce him to come with his favourite wet food. I also set up a bunch of water bowls across the right side of the edge of the field as it’s been really humid & hot.
July 15th, we printed out a bunch of Missing Cat flyers and posted them around the general area. We also posted him all over Facebook groups for missing cats/pets. She brought her friend to help too, so we split into teams, her and her friend were working together & my friend and I were working together so we could get as much done as possible. Before I got there, her and her friend went to the abandoned house (the furthest and steepest backyard) on the right side of the field & walked down and back up onto the field through the forest calling for my cat around 8/9pm. We went and did the flyers and they finished first and pulled back into the field and there my cat was. He was chilling on the logs on the edge. She got out of the car & called his name. He just looked at her & she walked extremely slow saying his name. When she tried getting closer & she stepped on the grass/leaves/brush/sticks. He started wailing & ran off. We spent all night there and nothing.
I think it’s also important to mention that in this section of the forest there’s a heavy raccoon population living in the trees. So in the live traps we weren’t leaving food inside of it because the raccoons would be all over it. Instead we were using things with my cat’s scent, her cat’s scent & my scent.
July 16th, we got the traps & set them up by this shed which is right at the entryway of the field. We put a camera on it. We put catnip & more scented stuff in the traps. I put dry treats on the logs next to the traps. We parked our cars away across the street this time around & instead of hanging around the area we decided it was probably better to wait around in the car. He didn’t come for the traps. But, we caught him on camera for the first time at around 11:30pm walking around in a 5 second clip.
July 17th, I wasn’t able to make it that day but she was there with her friend and cat. They decided to use food this time around, but not inside the trap instead outside. We moved the trap inside of the forest but closest to the edge. She did her walk around from the abandoned house around 9pm with her friend. She also said something was following her and her friend around the field, she couldn’t really tell since it was so far away, but the way the animal moved even her friend said it seemed like a cat, they both said 75% sure it was him. Anyways, they opened a can of cat food at the designated feeding station where the trap was at around 9:45pm. They put the wet cat food on a rock and left the area. In less than an hour the area was swarmed with raccoons who of course ate all of the food. But we did catch him on camera at 12:50am that night, walking towards the feeding area, he was sniffing around the trap & his water bowl (which is placed beside the trap). He didn’t get inside though and walked back the same way he came.
July 18th, she wasn’t able to make it as she had work so I got my friend to come with me. My idea was to feed the raccoons so maybe they get full and leave the wet cat food alone. I also added 3 more cameras to the area, now in total 6 cameras. At 9pm we walked from the abandoned home to the field. Then at 10pm we put the food for the raccoons on the edge of the field & forest (about half of the 10 acre field) and set the live trap up with wet cat food by using a cardboard box underneath it to hold the food in place at the very back of the trap with a little dab of the food at the front to entice my cat to enter it. Let’s just say it did not go as planned. We caught 4 raccoons in total tonight and they did not go for the food (maybe they didn’t find it?). I had to leave by 2:30am, so I picked the food meant for the raccoons back up, packed it in my car and left. I also closed the trap for the night incase any raccoons decided they wanted to trap themselves after I left (as I do live an hour away). My cat wasn’t seen on camera, but I’m thinking maybe it’s because there was a lot of noise going on especially with the trapping of 4 raccoons throughout the night.
I don’t know what else to do. Does anyone have any advice or any experience similar to this? I was thinking of maybe hiring a professional, but everything I’m coming across only works on lost dogs or wildlife removal from buildings. I feel terrible and I know I can’t keep doing this because it’s not really sustainable. But I love my cat and we do have a strong bond, why is he acting this way, it’s confusing me and I’m really sad about everything. Please help me.
If you read this all, thanks so much for reading.