Foreword: This is a very long post, but I am extremely concerned that this 4-month old kitten may be lost, hurt, or in danger. If you can offer any help or advice please let me know asap.
I live on the 5th floor of a very small studio apt in New York City. 6 days ago, this past Saturday, I adopted two rescue kittens, both 4 months old and a bonded pair. The shyer girl (I’ll call her B) has been missing since yesterday at the very latest, and I am extremely concerned & have no clue what to do. I’ve turned the entire house upside down and checked every single suggesion - if you can think of it, I’ve probably checked there already.
It is a very small place. I would estimate about 200sqft or less. There is a small closet attached to the wall & a space behind the kitchen appliances that they hid in for some time. Here’s the timeline & some details:
- The latest photographic evidence I have of the kitten B is from 5am on Tuesday, but I can say with almost full certainty that she was evidently here for at least a day more.
- I had a friend come over to study with me at my house until around 8pm on Tuesday, and I’m close to certain that BOTH cats were there and hiding behind the fridge. After he left, I didn’t leave the apartment until the next day, so they couldn’t have run out at night.
- On Wednesday around noon, I woke up and checkd behind the appliances, where both kittens had been hiding for a few days. My memory divulges here: either I only saw one of the kits, but the other wasn’t there, or I saw both of them. ATM I think it’s more likely that I only saw one. Afterwards, I left the apartment to run errands and came back a couple hours later. When I came back around 2-3pm, only one of the kittens, A, was there. The shyer one B was missing again.
- At that time, I noticed two things: 1. I had neglected to lock the front door, and 2. The window was slightly open. I’ll add a few crucial details about these things to the bottom.
- Part of me assumed B was hiding again (the day before, I made the stupid choice to try and calm them a little by crawling behind the oven. The one that I clearly saw was accounted for, A, was very scared), but when I checked again at 8pm after getting some things done & taking a nap, only about half the food I laid out had been touched. They only come out to eat & use the bathroom when they think I’m sleeping or away.
- Around that time, I checked the appliances and saw that the remaining kitten, A, had gotten herself trapped under the stove & refused to come out. At around 4am on Thursday, I lifted the stove until Kitten A rushed into the bathroom, and closed the door on her. Kitten A has been isolated there since w/ her litterbox, food & water, and I have checked on her regularly to make sure she’s safe. She’s a little scared but she’s fine.
- Ever since the accounted for kitten A has been isolated, the food, water & litter in the rest of my room has been unused, which means that the missing kitten B hasn’t touched these since 4am Thursday at the very LEAST, although I suspect she hasn’t touched them since 2pm Wednesday.
Here are the details of my apt:
- There is no elevator or any sort of boiler room she could escape to if she somehow managed to get out thru the front door. The apt leads straight out into the corridor, which is attached to a stairwell up and down. The walls are thin, so any meowing would’ve been easily noticed by my neighbors, and to get out onto the street, you need to open a glass door that only opens with a passcode. Therefore I can say the likelihood of her getting out onto the street is impossible.
- I live on the 5th floor, like I mentioned, but there are only two ways out of this room: through the door, or through one of the three windows.
- My apartment has no vents she could’ve climbed into, according to my landlord, and when we checked this place out about a month ago (it was the day I moved in, so it was empty) there weren’t any sort of holes or cracks in the walls.
- As soon as Kitten A escaped the stove on Thursday Morning, I triple checked to make sure no one was behind the appliances before blocking the whole area off. Kitten B is not behind the appliances.
- Kitten A is currently still isolated in the bathroom, and hs been for 24 hours now.
- The untouched food, water & litter is in the center of my room. I sleep on a small loft above the closet & sofa
- The sofa is small and minimalist. She is not in or on it.
- She is not in the closet, and if she is skmehow stuck in there, I am leaving the door open.
- She is not behind the appliances either, I think she dipped after I gave her a shock by crawling behind there
And here are the details about the two events mentioned above, as well as details about the kittens: - My door was unlocked: I did not lock the door before I left. However, the doorknob is NOT the type where anything without actual human hands can open it, it’s the round type. Plus, it was closed when I came back at 2pm on Wednesday, so I find it hard to believe that Kitten B somehow opened the inward-opening door from the inside and closed it. I also find it difficult to believe that someone would be specifically stalking me, someone that spends all but about 2-3 hours a day in their apartment, to make sure that I was gone in order to walk into my apartment and steal one (1) kitten that’s been living here for half a week, and not touch any of my very visible personal things (money, credit cards etc) or leave any traces. Plus the kitten would’ve been hiding anyway so it would be ridiculously difficult to do all of that AND not touch anything. ALSO: Full disclosure, I have moderate ADHD and have left my actual house keys in the keyhole outside my apartment multiple times overnight after coming back from school & I have not once been broken into. - The window was slightly open: I thought My friend had opened it on Tuesday when he came over to study, but that seems false. Now that I remember, i think I opened it a little before I left at noon on Wednesday. There was a screen covering the entirety of the open section of the window, so I guess I assumed it was safe? (Again, ADHD) When I came back, i noticed the open window & freaked out. I wanted to check if the screen was sturdy, so I poked it with one finger and it instantly detached & fell 5 stories onto the ground. This screen was covering the entire screen, so imo it is extremely implausible that Kitten B slid out and dropped 5 stories and left the screen intact. The only spacing in the screen was a gap of like half an inch between the screen and the bottom of the window and the slightest tap made this screen fall. I don’t think she fell. - Kitten B has no collar, but she IS very recently microchipped. She is in healthy condition but she is very, very shy and timid. - Kitten A has stopped meowing at night since Kitten B left her. She meowed at me to rescue her at 4am Wednesday (about when i rescued her) but her friendly chirping hasn’t been heard since 4am Tuesday.
If anyone has any suggestions or tips on what to do next, I would appreciate it greatly. Sorry if this is so vague, I wrote out every single thing i can remember but i don’t know what to do next. i can’t just stop looking, but I can’t just KEEP looking for all this time either because I’ve searched anywhere and everywhere she might’ve gone already. My current theory is that she found some spot that i can’t reach in this apartment, even though my imagination has genuinely run dry on where she could be. I am feeling very anxious and scared that she might be hurt, lost, or worse. What can I do? How best can I try to locate her? Should I keep waiting for her to come back or should I put up missing posters? What if she’s still in the house or something bad happened? I’ve been drowning in all this catastrophizing ever since she disappeared. Please help!! :( Where could my baby be? Would she cry out if she was hurt? What could be stopping her from getting to the food/water/litter for over 24 hours? What steps should i even be taking next?
I’m 20 and I live alone near the East Village area of Manhattan. I don’t think even if she got out anyone would’ve killed her or anything, my place is on a very safe and populated street.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/q3s3gn/lost_4_month_kitten_my_new_kitten_has_been/
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