Missing cat features influencing their returning to owners

Abstract

In this study, the features influencing finding and returning missing cats to their owners were investigated. The data were collected on the missing and recovered cats in the City of Zagreb, Croatia, during the 2011-2016 period, including the following features: breed, sex, age, colour, hair length, castration and microchipping. A data analysis was performed by use of the Statistica v13.4 software. Out of 946 cats reported to be missing, 372 (39%) were returned to their owners. Purebred (P < 0.01), castrated (P < 0.05), microchipped (P < 0.05) cats, and those with semi-long and long hair (P < 0.05) were more frequently returned to their owners, whereas the sex, age and colour had no significant impact on the missing cat recovery. The study results showed particular cat features influencing their finding to be correlated (P < 0.05). In conclusion, cat owners should attempt to control their movements, in particular of older and non-castrated cats, to reduce the rate of cats going missing. In addition, microchipping would facilitate finding them. The large-scale implementation of the concepts highlighted in this study can contribute to reducing the number of missing cats and increasing the number of cats being returned to their owners.

Keywords

• missing cat
• found cat
• microchipping
• castration
• breed
• hair length