The call came from a hospital bed.
The owner was admitted unexpectedly, and her two indoor-only cats, Rosie and Ichabod, got out of the house while she was gone. I still don't know exactly how, and that's not the part of this story that matters. What mattered was that two cats who had never been outside on their own were suddenly loose, and she asked me to find them and get them to the vet. I said yes before I really understood what I was saying yes to.
My first visit to the house was with one of my staff members, since I had never been there before. There was no meet-and-greet, no walkthrough, none of the usual groundwork. We searched every room and every closet and found no sign of either cat. It was the neighbors who told us they'd seen Rosie and Ichabod outside. That was our first real lead.
I had never seen where the cats hid, what their routine looked like, where their supplies were, or what Rosie's medication schedule was supposed to be. Normally that information comes first, before I ever agree to care for someone's pet. This time I was starting from nothing, trying to find two cats I had never met.
What I Usually Know Before I Ever Walk In
Before I take on a new pet, I gather a lot of information. I want to know the house, the hiding places, the feeding schedule, the medications, where the carriers are kept, what a bad day looks like for that animal versus a normal one. That process exists because it works. It means that if something goes wrong, I already know where to start looking and what I am dealing with.
None of that existed here. I was working blind, and Rosie needed her medication daily. That made the timeline feel urgent in a way I don't usually have to sit with.
When the Experts Showed Up
A local TNR group got involved, and that changed everything. I knew what TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) stood for, but I had never watched the work up close. What I saw went far beyond anything I had done myself. They knew where to place a trap and when to move it if it wasn't working. They searched the house, the yard, and the neighborhood again and again. They set traps in the evening and came back every few hours through the night to check them. Night after night.
Several raccoons got caught along the way, and each one had to be safely released before the work could continue. Eventually Rosie was caught. Ichabod was not.
Rosie needed vet care right away. She had gone without her medication and lost weight. She is recovering now and starting to regain it. Her spirit is coming back, too, but I have not stopped thinking about her or about Ichabod since this started.
A Month In, and Still Waiting
After several weeks with no sign of Ichabod, another trapper was brought in with fresh eyes. Somewhere in that stretch, the team realized a large feral male cat had claimed the area, and there was concern he might be keeping Ichabod too frightened to come near the property. That cat was trapped, neutered, and kept away from the house for a while, just to give Ichabod a better chance. I had never once considered how another cat's territory could decide whether a scared cat felt safe enough to come home.
It has been about a month now. Ichabod's photo has been shared on the Crockett's Critter Care Facebook page, and flyers are up around the neighborhood asking people to watch for him. One cat is safe. One is still out there. The waiting is the hardest part, and I don't have an ending for you yet.
What has stayed with me most is the volunteers themselves. They didn't know these cats before this happened. They gave up sleep, came back to the same spots more than once, dealt with raccoons and bad weather and one empty trap after another, and never treated any of it as someone else's problem.
Why it matters: Experience doesn’t mean you never need help. I have been doing this work for years, and I still hit a situation I was not prepared for. What got Rosie home safe wasn't me knowing everything. It was other people showing up with knowledge I didn't have.
The Question Worth Asking Before You Ever Need To
Most people don't think about this until they're the one calling from a hospital bed, an emergency room, or somewhere they never planned to be.
If something happened to you tomorrow, does anyone know your pet's routine? Their medications, if they have any? Where they hide when they're scared? Do they know your emergency contacts, or anyone else who knows your pet and their routine?
You don't have to have all the answers today. But you should know where the answers live, whether that's a note on the fridge, a file with a friend, or a pet sitter who already knows the house before an emergency ever happens. That is the entire point of a meet-and-greet. It is not paperwork. It is the difference between someone stepping into your pet's life prepared
or starting from nothing the way I did with Rosie and Ichabod.
Ichabod is still out there, and I am still hoping to write a good ending to this one. In the meantime, if you haven't thought about who would step in for your pet if you couldn't, now is a good time to do so.
If you'd like to talk through what that plan could look like for your pet, give us a call at (252) 635-2655 or visit the contact page.
Jeanne Crockett
Fear Free Elite Professional Animal Trainer | Canine Reactivity Specialist | First ACE Free Work Trainer in North Carolina
Crockett's Critter Care | New Bern, NC
