missing cat? kitty convict:
orange is the new cat collar

OK, what’s an orange collar got to do with a missing cat? You’ve probably heard about Orange is the New Black, but have you heard about the Kitty Convict Project? It’s an idea from The Oatmeal, an online comic website by Matthew Inman who claims “Everything on my website was written, drawn and coded by Matthew Inman.” He’s also the guy who wrote the #1 New York Times Best Selling book, How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You, which I have heard of (OK, and read). Inman came up with the Kitty Convict Project after he created his very popular card game, Exploding Kittens. “Basically” Mr. Inman said, ” we had a really successful game and we wanted a way to give back in a creative way … something where I could actually solve a problem. It’s our form of cat atonement. Catonement.” The problem Mr. Inman is referring to is about missing or lost cats, especially indoor cats. He decided branding the cat in orange, like a convict, just might work.
He recently launched The Kitty Convict Project – The idea is to put an orange collar on your cat, preferably with an ID tag. Orange is bright and reflective and it will brand your cat as an INDOOR CAT. So anyone who sees a cat running around outdoors in an orange collar, will know that they have escaped – like a convict.

The kitty convict project

“I don’t know if it will work, it’s a tall order,” Inman told Susan Wyatt, KING 5 News. Seattle, Washington. “We’re asking the world to change their perception of what a collar should be.”

statistics show that in the U.S.A:

• more than 7 million pets go missing each year.
• 26 percent of dogs are reported and returned home
• less than 5 percent of cats are recovered.

Why the disparity?

1.More dogs have ID collars than cats

2.Cats are better at hiding – when your kitty gets lost, often he’s scared, sick or injured and doesn’t want to be found. (Two-thirds of cats that go missing are found within 4-5 houses of where they live.)

3.When people see a dog running around the neighborhood they assume it’s lost. When people see a cat running around the neighborhood they just assume it’s an outdoor cat so it never gets reported.

Inman has partnered with GoTags to create two orange collars. “We took revenue from our game sales and we subsidized the cost,” he said. The Kitty Convict Project has gone viral. “The Facebook post reached 10 million in 5 hours,” he said.

Mr. Inman figured a project like this would make him “square with the cats of the world.”

Kat Albrecht, founder of Missing Pet Partnership, says that getting owners to put collars on indoor cats is great. “Many owners of indoor-only cats just assume that they DON’T need to put a collar or identification on their cats because they never let their cats outside,” she said. “However, indoor-only cats are the MOST at risk of not getting back home when they escape outside because they hide in silence and their owners give up too soon. When these cats ultimately end up being taken in to the animal shelter (by a neighbor), the owner has long since given up on searching for them. That’s why a microchip (in addition to an orange collar) is needed.”

According to Missing Pet Partnership, three major reasons why cats are not reunited with their owners:

1. Owners rely on flyers and social media when an indoor cat is likely hiding in silence very close to their escape point, and a physical search is critical to uncover where the cat is hiding.

2. People stop searching too soon. Cats are great at hiding in silence, especially indoor cats, so they can hide for several weeks and end up in a shelter long after the owner has stopped searching – never give up hope.

3. Many people believe that their cat must have been killed by local wildlife, such as coyotes or owls/eagles, and they give up the search. This is most often not the case, and without evidence of predation (e.g. the cat’s remains), people should not assume the worst and give up the search. Many, many cats are found safe weeks and months after going missing.

In conclusion, putting a collar on our cats is helpful, a collar with tags even better, and this kitty convict – orange is the new cat collar is the best.