It was now Sunday morning.
Hazel had been gone for at least two whole days and a night.
It was time to take further action.
Having not been in this situation before, I looked online for advice.
Some of this advice included leaving pungent food in favoured spots and checking sheds and garages.
But we’d already tried attracting her with the promise of food and she certainly wasn’t residing in a shed or garage.
It was time to take further action.
So what could have happened?
Well, she’d been either taken or was trapped somewhere.
She could have been injured in some way too perhaps or involved in a fatal accident, but she never ventured far so we felt these were less likely and we’d probably have found her in the locality.
If she had been taken, then there wasn’t much we could do, other than monitor websites listing a Bengal for sale to see if she showed up.
The possibility of her getting trapped was also real.
There had been occasions where she’d snuck into the shed whilst my back was turned only for me to lock the door.
Only when the realisation that I hadn’t see her for a while hit, and that she was nowhere to be seen did the possibility that I’d locked her in raise its head.
So this could have easily happened elsewhere without the shed/garage owner feeling the need to later to check said locations.
Microchipping
Hazel was not microchipped, even though this was on the ‘to do list’ for some time.
We kicked ourselves for having not had it done.
Had she been ‘chipped then if she was lost but handed in somewhere, we could have easily been alerted and had her safely returned to us.
Having said that, this is the only scenario in which being ‘chipped would have helped.
It’s about probability though- it would have simply ruled out one more possibility.
The Plan
The plan was to leaflet the local area hoping someone had seen her or that people would check sheds and garages to inadvertently free her.
We would also contact local charities, shelters and vets to see if she’d been handed in.
I didn’t really have much hope.
In fact, I’d already started packing some of her things away.
But we had to try.
Further Reading:
