Lost cat: the search-radius rule

"My cat is gone" doesn't mean the same thing for every cat. The search radius derives from its profile — and searching the right place beats searching everywhere.

The 3 radii by profile

Escaped indoor cat: 50 to 300 m. Terrified, it freezes in the first hiding spot: crawl space, under a deck, an ajar garage, a dense hedge. Search with a flashlight, at night, between 9 pm and 5 am.

Outdoor-savvy cat: 300 to 500 m. It knows its territory. If it doesn't come home, it's most likely trapped (locked in a garage, fallen into a basement) or hurt — not "lost". Comb through closed structures and ask every neighbor to open their outbuildings.

Cat lost outside its territory (move, vet escape): 1 to 3 km. The radius widens — a displaced cat sometimes tries to reach the old home. Cover the old-home → new-home axis and post the alert on both towns.

The grid protocol

1. Day 1-2: tight grid of the primary radius, every 3-4 h, nights included.
2. Day 3-5: widen one step + posters at the radius edges. One poster at 500 m outperforms 20 posters in an already-combed 50 m.
3. Beyond: keep the Pista alert running — sightings reported by watchers extend the radius with no effort on your side.

What traps a cat

Closed structures concentrate most cases: garages and sheds opened "for 5 minutes", basements, attics, car trunks. Always ask about ongoing works (people movement → disturbed hiding spots) and holiday departures (a closed garage with a cat inside).

The digital complement

A Pista alert covers a radius your feet can't: watchers report sightings with approximate positions, and the timeline orders them — a sighting outside your radius can redraw the whole map. Post the alert on day one, and see why a lost cat hides so close.