The following clinics are available for emergencies. Call first to ensure they are equipped to handle your specific emergency. If the clinic has its own web site, you can click on its name to go there. Click on the address for a map or driving directions.

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If your cat is permitted outdoors, please have him microchipped. Microchipping is an inexpensive way to ensure that he'll be reunited if he's found. In general, cats that are wearing a form of identification, such as a collar or a collar and tag, are held Here are some steps you should take as soon as possible:

• Don’t panic. Cats are territorial, and generally do not wander far from their home. If they are outdoors for the first time or outside their territory, they'll be scared by their new surroundings and will hunker down until they feel it’s safe to move about. Cats generally will NOT move around during the day, but will search for food and move about at night, when it is cool, and they won’t wander far if food and water are close by.
• Anchor your cat to your home by putting canned food and fresh water outside your back door (away from the street!). If possible, leave food in your adjoining neighbors' yards also. If ants are a problem, put the bowl of food in a larger bowl filled with water. Also put out a towel or blanket with your cat’s scent on it and leave a light on at night.
• Check hiding spots. Cats occasionally get shut into places that are open temporarily, so check your neighbors' garages, sheds, storage areas, and crawl spaces.
• Alert the neighborhood by making up flyers with your cat’s picture and a font large enough to be read from a passing car. Use our free form to make the flyer or create your own. Print the flyers on bright colored, eye-catching paper. If it is likely to rain, put the flyers inside sheet protectors that you can get at any office supply store. Be sure that the opening in the sheet protector is at the bottom so water doesn't get to the flyer.
  • Start close to home, then distribute the flyers in an ever-widening radius. Post the flyers where people will see them from their cars when stopped, or while out walking.
  • Hand-deliver flyers to your neighbors, and enlist their help. If they have indoor cats, your cat may be drawn to their house.
  • Put flyers in mailboxes or at front doors. It is possible someone nearby has been feeding your cat and is unaware that he is lost -- this happens quite often.
• File a missing cat report with your local, public animal shelter. It's best to go there in person (take a flyer with you and ask them to post it). Shelters also maintain lists of cats that have been found, and those that have been picked up injured or dead.
  To locate your local, public animal shelter:
  • If you live in San Mateo County: Peninsula Humane Society
  • For the cities of the City of San Jose, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Milpitas and Saratoga: City of San Jose, Animal Care and Services
  • Sunnyvale only: Humane Society Silicon Valley
  • Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View: Palo Alto Animal Services
  • City of Santa Clara, Campbell and Monte Sereno: Silicon Valley Animal COntrol Services
  • Unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County: Santa Clara County, Division of Animal Care and Control
  • San Francisco: San Francisco Animal Care and Control
  For cities not listed, do a Google search using the search terms "animal control" and your city.
• WALK your neighborhood late at night when it is quiet and call for him. While walking, tap the edge of a can of cat food with a fork or rattle a bag of dry food. Lost pets often hide during the day.
• Slowly DRIVE around your neighborhood late at night -- cats often recognize the sound of a car. Important: When calling for your cat, wait for a lull in any traffic so that your cat is not tempted to run to you and into the path of traffic!
• If someone contacts you and says they've seen your cat, ask if you can put canned and dry food in THEIR backyard to anchor him to that location. Then hang out and call his name -- he won't wander if he has food and feels safe.
• Post flyers at local vet clinics. Someone could have picked up your cat and taken to a vet.
• Talk to your neighbors, and especially children! Children are often outdoors and ride their bikes around, and thus know what's going on in the neighborhood. They are often the first ones to notice a stray.
• Post ads in:
  • Craig's List (under Pets in the Community section and Discussion Forum)
  • Local newspapers, such as the San Jose Mercury News, Palo Alto Daily News(free!), Palo Alto Weekly
• BE PERSISTENT! Someone recently emailed us about their lost cat. They followed the above steps and found their cat 4 WEEKS later -- a neighbor down the street had been feeding their cat, and didn't know he was lost. Another family had lost their cat, and found it by walking the nieghborhood at night while calling their kitty's name. So please continue leaving food out, posting flyers, and canvassing your neighborhood. Persistence is key -- hang in there!

Bless you for taking the time and caring enough to rescue the little fella. He could very well live just down the street, and could have gotten out by mistake, or the owners may be away and their petsitter is unaware that he is lost.

Please do the following to help reunite the him with his owner:

• Do NOT take him to the shelter -- most all shelters are overwhelmed with cats and kittens, and he will most likely be euthanized (put to sleep).
• Take him to a local vet clinic (if possible) and have them check him for a microchip.
• Bring him indoors, or keep him confined to a garage or room to protect him and prevent him from wandering off.
• Feed him, and make certain he has access to fresh water. This will anchor him to the area, and prevent him from wandering further and possibly getting injured.
• If you have other cats or pets, do not let them mingle. Cats are territorial and your cats may defend their territory and initiate a fight or frighten the cat off.
• Blanket the neighborhood with flyers immediately; make the font large enough so that it can be easily read by a passing car. Start close to home; then, spread them in an ever-widening radius, hundreds of them. Post them where people will see them from their cars when stopped, or out walking. Include a photo if you have one. Print them on bright, eye-catching paper. Also drop them at people's doors or mailboxes. When you have a digital picture of the cat you have found, click here to create a flyer you can print.
• Go door-to-door and talk to as many neighbors as possible, enlisting their help.
• Contact your local public shelter and file a found cat report. It's best to go there in person (take a flyer with you and ask them to post it).
• Place an ad in LOCAL papers. Check the Lost and Found classified ads in those papers for found cats.
• Talk to your neighbors, and especially children! Children are often outdoors and ride their bikes around, and thus know what's going on in the neighborhood. They are often the first ones to know who has cats.
• Post flyers at local vet clinics.

If you think you cat has been poisoned, call the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435.

There is a $55 consultation fee for this service.

Be ready with the following information:
• the species, breed, age, sex, weight and number of animals involved
• the animal’s symptoms
• information regarding the exposure, including the agent (if known), the amount of the agent involved and the time elapsed since the time of exposure.

Have the product container/packaging available for reference.

Please note: If your animal is having seizures, losing consciousness, is unconscious or is having difficulty breathing, telephone ahead and bring your pet immediately to your local veterinarian or emergency veterinary clinic. If necessary, he or she may call the APCC.

The Cat Fancier's Association has a list of plants poisonous to cats.

For indoor-only cats only we recommend only the 3-in-1 FVRCP vaccination (FVR – Feline Viral Rhinotracheitis, C – Calicivirus and P – Panleukopenia). This vaccination is given to kittens from the age of 6-8 weeks every 4 weeks until they are 16 weeks old and then again at 1 year old. After that the vaccination has been found to be good for 3 years in cats with low risk of exposure.

Private veterinary clinics can charge an arm and a leg to fix. The City of Palo Alto runs an excellent low-cost spay/neuter clinic. They will fix a feral cat for as little as $10 with a Santa Clara County voucher. Palo Alto residents receive a $5 discount off the nomal spay/neuter surgery fee of $35 for males and $45 for females. Kittens under 4 months receive an additional $5 discount off the normal fee.

The non-profit Peninsula Fix Our Ferals organization holds free spay/neuter surgery clinics for homeless cats. A number of veterinarians volunteer their time to fix as many cats as they can in a single day. One surgery day typically handles 40-50 cats.

Financial assistance for spay/neuter surgery is available in the form of vouchers that cover some or all of the cost of the surgery. Except as noted below, vouchers do not usually cover vaccinations, FeLV/FIV testing, or any other treatment the cat may need.

Vouchers are available from a number of sources, but each program can run out of money before the end of its fiscal year.

• Santa Clara County

  Santa Clara County has a voucher program. For feral cats who will be returned to their colony, the voucher cost is $10 and covers spay/neuter surgery, FVRCP and rabies vaccinations, and an ear notch. Vouchers are available at county clinics, e.g. Palo Alto Animal Services (see ).

  For domestic cats, the coupon deducts $20 from the cost of the surgery. Funding for this program can be exhausted before the end of the county’s fiscal year.

• San Mateo County

  (Details to come.)

• Palo Alto Humane Society

  The Palo Alto Humane Society has a voucher program. The cost is $12 for cats 4 months and older and $24 for kittens under 4 months.

We may be able to help by providing the basic vaccine (FVRCP, $2) and medication for worms, ear mites etc. ($5) to the clinic. Palo Alto Animal Sevices will adminster these for $1 each if we provide them when the cat is taken in for sugery. However, most veterinary clinics naturally consider the revenue from these treatments as part of their business.

Vouchers are accepted at the following veterinary clinics. If the clinic has a web site you may click on its name to go there. Click on a clinic’s address to get a map or driving directions. Some clinics may charge a small additional fee in addition to the voucher for the spay/neuter surgery.

First of all, do NOT surrender your cats to ANY public shelter. It is now kitten season and the shelters are SWAMPED with abandoned cats. Kittens are in demand now, and mature, adult cats willl be euthanized first. Your cats are older, and it is always a challenge to find good homes for older cats.

Second, did you adopt your cats through a private rescue group such as Pets in Need, Homeless Cat Network, or the Palo Alto Humane Society? If so, when you adopted your cat you signed a contract stating that if you could no longer keep your cat that the organzation would take the cat back, thus preventing the cat from being surrendered to a shelter. They will honor your contract, so please contact the rescue group.

Contact your local vet clinics and see if they will offer to take your cats. The Stanford Pet Clinic on El Camino in Palo Alto (493-4233) may take your cats if you pay for the first month's boarding in advance. Please mention that you were referred by Fat Cat Rescue when you call.

Also, there are two excellent private, no-kill shelters in San Francisco — the SPCA and Pets Unlimited — that may take your cats. Offering them a generous donation to care for your cats may improve the odds that they will accept your cat.

Unfortunately Fat Cat Rescue does not have a shelter and cannot take owner-surrendered pets.

© 2007-2008 Fat Cat Rescue