Mary Allen
According to the ANIS database, around 7,000 cats disappear every year in Switzerland. Thanks to luck, Chip, and attentive people, some of them return home safely. But why do cats run away at all?
Aramis the cat covered twenty kilometers in four days to return home after the move. The fact that he actually found his place of birth is a small miracle: After all, he only covered the route from Weingarten to Donzhausen in the canton of Thurgau once – and that was by car. A former neighbor found the animal and realized it was his former neighbor Sandra Minder’s cat. “I was totally desperate and looked for him for days,” Minder recalls: “I never thought he’d run that far!” When her neighbor got in touch with her, she was overjoyed – and immediately put a transmitter on Aramis to be on the safe side. Luckily! Only a week later, the cat set off again – and was picked up in the forest in Märstetten (more than ten kilometers from the new home).
“Cats cover incredible distances to return to their old homes,” says Ursula Niggli. The veterinarian has experienced many stories in her long professional career. For example, after two weeks in Laufen-Uhwiesen in the canton of Zurich, an employee’s cat started its journey home to Aadorf in the canton of Thurgau, 40 kilometers away. Fortunately, the animal was picked up halfway.
When Hormones Go Haywire
According to Niggli, common reasons for running away after a move are that the cat is not kept in the new place for long enough or is not carefully accustomed to the new environment. “Cats first have to find their way around in their quarters and know places where they can hide. Otherwise, they’ll run away in panic at the first danger and may not find their way home.”
Hormones are also always to blame for cats – in this case especially hangovers – running away. Niggli herself would have almost lost her tomcat in this way – if it hadn’t been for being an attentive animal lover. “I had missed neutering the little cat early. The hormones drove him away and he probably couldn’t find his way back.” The postman finally found the little runaway in a hamlet between Marthalen and Rheinau – four kilometers from his home in Marthaler.
Aramis Has Settled Down
Scary dogs in the neighborhood, a new human or animal roommate, too little attention, territory problems, or noise (e.g. due to a renovation) are other reasons why a cat runs away – and never comes home. As different as the causes are, the effect is the same: inconsolable owners racking their brains over where their darling is.
Leo Ferraro was also heartbroken. After a serious scooter accident, the journalist and cat fan had to spend months in hospital and later in a rehabilitation clinic. In addition to the drama of the back injury, Job’s message from home was added: Fredi, the favorite cat, had disappeared. “The news almost knocked me back into anesthesia,” Ferraro recalls. Bow-legged, nervous and cross-eyed, the Snow Bengal was his favorite of all his cats. On the second day at home – after seven months of absence – the cat door actually clicked: Fredi returned.
Even with long-distance tomcat Aramis, peace has now returned. “He’s been home safely for a year and he’s doing very well,” says Minder. In order to get to Weingarten, the cat even had to cross a bridge at the time – that’s what keeps going through her head: “When I think about it, tears come to my eyes. Then I have to hug him tightly.”