Huge Scare

[Kristin]

My DSH Tiger is an indoor/outdoor cat (unfortunately...he was meant to be indoor but had huge behavioral problems as a kitten and they all went away when we let him outside). He has begun to be really bad outside, wandering too far away from home and not coming in at night like he is supposed to, so we have been trying to keep him inside.
Anyways, yesterday somehow he managed to get outside without anyone noticing...it wasn't until about 6 pm that we realized he was gone. We did a quick search outside, walking down the street calling but he didn't come home for dinner. At 10 pm he still wasn't home, and no one had seen him since noon so we decided to go for a hunt. We spent a good hour and a half searching for him, with no luck. At this point we are afraid he has been eaten by some wild animals.
He still wasn't home this morning, so I went out with my mom looking, at this point for a body as my neighbour recently spotted racoons across the street where he often goes, and we have seen coyotes as well.
There is a disgusting house on our street that has absolutely no maintenance and no one lives there (we think) but the son comes once in a blue moon to cut the grass. They leave their garage door open, but the son must have come yesterday and closed it. Lo and behold, Tiger is stuck in their garage. We get him out (the horrors!! I have never ever seen anything as disgusting) and all seems to be well.

I remember a thread recently on GPS's. I think it was Tort who mentioned something that can be put on their collar and tracked through an iPhone? I couldn't find it when I searched.
If there is a link I would be really grateful if you could post it. We are back on Tiger Watch for making sure he stays inside, but after a completely sleepless night and all the worrying, I would be so much more comfortable having some sort of tracker on him.

Sorry for the long post!

 

[Tort518]

Here is the link. The pre-sale period ended and the first batch for supporters will come out early next year. Then I suspect they will open it up for additional sales.

http://www.thetileapp.com/

It doesn't do active GPS, but it does record gps positions so that if someone else that uses the app for it passes within range of the tile a message showing the position is sent to the owner of the tile without giving away anything about who passed by.

This would probably have helped in your search since the range is pretty decent for the type search you were doing near the houses.

I ordered 4 (3 + 1 free) and look forward to testing them out.

 

[admin]

Wow, Kristin, I'm glad you found him...

 

[django]

BAD BOY TIGER!!! I'm soooo happy you found the little guy safe and sound.

 

[MattM]

Glad you found him. Give this a try. I don't think they make anything specifically for dogs, but you might be able to find something you can rig or fix for Tiger. The technology you are looking for is called lo jack.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...eld-keywords=gps+collar&rh=i:aps,k:gps+collar

 

[MattM]

Here is the link. The pre-sale period ended and the first batch for supporters will come out early next year. Then I suspect they will open it up for additional sales.

http://www.thetileapp.com/

It doesn't do active GPS, but it does record gps positions so that if someone else that uses the app for it passes within range of the tile a message showing the position is sent to the owner of the tile without giving away anything about who passed by.

This would probably have helped in your search since the range is pretty decent for the type search you were doing near the houses.

I ordered 4 (3 + 1 free) and look forward to testing them out.

I want this so much.

 

[Tort518]

Not sure the thread the Tile thing was frst posted or who posted it originally, but I think it can be a good step toward locating wandering pets. As it becomes more widespread it becomes even more useful. I suspect a good word of mouth campaign and eventual placement in stores will make this thing take off pretty well.

 

[Kristin]

Thanks for the links! I am at work and on my phone so I looked briefly but will definitely look more thoroughly when I get home. Tiger never wanders too far and usually stays within eye sight of the house, which is why we were in a panic. Hopefully he learned his lesson...

 

[Pam Flachs]

I'm glad you found Tiger! Have you considered some sort of outdoor enclosure to keep him from wandering away again? I think he used up one of his nine lives this time, but with coyotes and rundown houses that he can get locked in, I'd worry the next time he might not be so lucky

 

[Pam and Will]

Here's a GPS tracker I have found and was considering;
http://www.pettracker.com/pet-gps/gps-cat-tracking

Has some nice features and smartphone/iPhone apps for tracking. Glad you found him!