Suggested by Michael, a reader of my newsletter. A friend of his lost her cat a week ago and has been crying for days.
The idea
When a cat goes missing, the people most likely to have seen it are the ones who already know it: the neighbour who feeds it in the morning, the restaurant on the corner, someone who met it last week and took its photo. Today there’s no way to reach them. Stray Cats already connects a cat with everyone who has met it, so it could:
- Let the people who care for a cat mark it as missing, with when and roughly where it was last seen.
- Alert the people who’ve met that cat, and people in the same area, with its card: “Have you seen Ninja?”
- Check recent photos. Someone may have met a cat that looks a lot like it yesterday, a few streets away. “Is this the same cat?” becomes urgent and useful.
- Send sightings privately to the people searching, never onto a public map.
- Celebrate the good news. When a cat is found, everyone who looked gets to know.
Strays go missing too
Not every missing cat has an owner who’s searching. A community cat can simply stop turning up, and nobody may notice for weeks. If its regular visitors are connected, someone notices sooner: “Has anyone seen Carlitos lately?” That alone could save a cat that’s injured, trapped or sick.
When a cat doesn’t come back
Many missing cats are never found, and some are found too late. Not knowing is its own kind of grief. A cat’s record could stay open (“last seen in October”), so that if it turns up months later, someone recognises it.
And when a cat dies, the people who loved it should be able to remember it together. A cat’s history can end with an obituary, written by everyone who knew it (see Encounters). This project began as a way to remember cats; it’s dedicated to Saibo.
Keeping it safe
A missing-cat alert must never become a way to find where a cat lives, or to trick a worried owner. Alerts show the area, not the address; sightings go only to the people searching; nobody’s phone number is shown; and someone who claims a found cat should have to show it’s theirs (see Privacy & Animal Safety and Stray, Pet, or Somewhere in Between?).
Not just cats?
Michael also asked whether this should be for all pets. Dogs go missing too, and so do rabbits, parrots and tortoises. Stray Cats is starting with cats, on purpose: they’re the animals most likely to live between homes. But nearly everything here (identity, encounters, the care network, missing alerts) would work for any animal. Dogs come later; they’re just a different type of cat.
Open questions
- Who can mark a cat as missing: an owner, a caretaker, anyone who’s met it?
- How do you alert people without overwhelming them, or alarming them about every cat that stays away for a day?
- How do you stop scams, such as people asking for a reward for a cat they don’t have?
- Should Stray Cats connect to local shelters and existing lost-pet services, rather than replace them?
- How should a cat’s record end: with “missing”, “found” or “remembered”?