Catha For Council Blog

I am often asked “Jason, I get people to my website, but nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?” Is this you? Did you build a website only to have people come and leave? If so, you can still save your website. By following some tried and true rules, your website can become supercharged and be all that you envisioned.

First, we need to dispel one myth. The Internet amazes almost no one anymore. When I started in the early 1990’s it was a whole different story. Today, the Internet is a major force in our lives. Instead of saying things like “Wow! Look at that!” we are saying “Been there, done that.” However, some people know this and go to the wrong extreme by over complicating their website.

Rule One: You are not an artist.

Ok, maybe you are, but you still don’t need to use every available color and font in the known universe on your website. Take a look at any newspaper. How many colors and fonts do you see? Many are black and white print with a splash of color here and there. Their type is sure and steady. The USA Today is one of the more colorful papers out there and even they don’t go nuts with color.

If your website is a visual car wreck, your visitors will end up leaving. Your website could look like a piece of art, but if the message gets lost, it is a waste of space. Keep your colors simple and pleasing to the eye. If you look at some of the most successful websites, you will notice they usually have a simple color scheme.

Rule Two: Your website is not a puzzle.

Have you ever been to a website for the first time and seen information all over your screen? If so, you most likely felt overwhelmed and you probably left. Here is a fact. The more orderly your website is in regards to content layout, the more focused your visitor will become on the content. Content that is not in an orderly fashion is sometimes coined as “hip”, but the end result is a less focused visitor.

Does this mean you need a plain boring website? Of course not. However, due care is warranted when laying out content. I would like to direct your attention to the newspaper again. Most newspapers use grids to layout their content. Look at the newspaper. Even though it has a wealth of information, you feel right at home. This is the same effect your website should have.

Spend the extra time and figure out how you can best lay out your content. Always design with the first time user in mind. Keep navigation as a top concern. You don’t need fancy flash buttons and other doodads. If the visitor can not use your website with ease and minimal distractions, all is lost.

Rule Three: Keep your focus.

How many websites have you went to that spend valuable homepage space welcoming you to the website? Think about this for a moment. Why is this necessary? What could be put into its place? When a new user goes to your website, you have literally seconds to interest them enough so they stay. Do you want to waste that valuable time with a welcome message?

When you turn on TV to watch your favorite show, does the show start off by welcoming you to Channel X and Show X? Of course it doesn’t. The whole point of this section is to illustrate just how important space is. You do not have the luxury of time to have fluff on your website. Your ad copy (text/images) must be lean and mean.

Another common mistake I see on ecommerce oriented websites is the whole “who we are” speech on the homepage. When a new visitor comes to your website, they don’t care who you are. They care about what you can do for them. Keep your focus on the visitor’s needs and not your own. Before you spend time talking about yourself, you need to give the visitor a reason to care. Because of this, it is best to put all your text about your company on other pages. There is nothing wrong with putting a blurb about your company on the homepage, but it should be limited and to the point.

If you find yourself at wits end, it is time to call in the experts. My company, MarketJunction.com, can help you. Are there more than three rules you ask? Yes, but I selected three very important ones for you in this article. My website, JasonAMartin.com, has more informative articles. Follow these three rules and you will be well on your way to a supercharged website.

Copyright 2005 Jason Andrew Martin LLC

Jason A. Martin is a Journalism major and has over a decade of successful Internet business experience. His informational articles can be found at www.JasonAMartin.com. He owns www.MarketJunction.com , a marketing company that specializes in copywriting & copyediting, article writing & editing and search engine optimization & marketing.

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1. Share with staff your definition of intrapreneurialism and intention of
fostering it throughout the corporation well before the plan is complete and
the details fixed.

Poll staff’s fears, seek their input and suggestions: create an
atmosphere of excitement and support.

2. Revisit with staff your corporate vission, mission and values.

If these do not permeate the organisation like the rings of a tree,
take the steps necessary to make that happen.

3. Have staff developed their own personal missions, visions and values?

If not, help staffers create them. Should the two be mutually
exclusive, then it is in everybody’s best interests to help those concerned
find another corporation in which there will be no conflict.

4. Have your people developed strong Personal Foundations and do they live
according to the Irresistible Attraction model?

As part of your professional/personal development program offer the
associated courses to your staff. Help them to be their best in every area
of their lives, including the promotion of your corporation.

5. Have client sectors with whom the corporation will not work been
identified and discussed with staff?

On the one hand we clearly want to avoid bringing in work which is
simply going to create friction, but on the other, your people may have
another perspective which eliminates the problem.

6. Give your people the language to express the business of your corporation
in simple terms as well as the appropriately technical.

Do this not just for their own area but for every production department
of the operation. The more they share your business and its achievements
with all around them, the more people in their lives will understand the
work of your company and the more leads will come from completely unexpected
sources.

7. Help staffers effortlessly introduce themselves.

Help your people to effortlessly introduce themselves to individuals
and groups not in terms of what they do, but the benefits they bring to the
corporation’s clients.

8. Help staffers effortlessly introduce your company.

Help your people find the language uniquely right for them to introduce
your corporation to individuals and groups in terms of the benefits of its
range of services.

9. Present or arrange a networking workshop for staff.

Have them learn networking skills, teach them about relationship
marketing, have them practice asking the open-ended questions. Follow up
with group coaching sessions to help staff find the right language for each
situation, to disengage from fruitless conversations and to reprise any
interactions which didn’t go as well as anticipated.

10. Where do staff go, to whom do they speak, what do they read?

Intrapreneurialism is not for inside the head only. Your people may
already be surrounded by untapped business opportunities. Their lives
outside of work may not change at all but they will be more alert to
opportunities as they arise and the way in which they present themselves
will attract more business enquiries. Help them develop their strategies for
capitalizing on all the opportunities, existing and as yet unrecognised.

Copyright CoachVille

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Martin Sawdon of Coaching-Works! has a passion for the creation of super-successful organizations - Sustainable Workplaces. As a coach he has been described as a velvet-gloved bulldozer and as a speaker, powerful, engaging, outstanding.

To learn more about Martin and Sustainable Workplaces, Sustainable Relationships, and the Sustainable You, visit his website ==>http://www.coachingworks.ca

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Ginseng is a plant with a very important role in traditional Chinese medicine. They believe that it relieves stress, improves circulation, increases quality of life, cures flu, cures impotence, and even that it can stop cancer. In fact, like many traditional remedies, it has been claimed to be a cure for almost everything.

Obviously, scientists are quick to point out that it is difficult to test whether ginseng actually has any effects at all in a scientific sense, but that doesn’t stop it from being wildly popular. It is one of the biggest-selling items at Chinese-run shops, sold both to Chinese people and believers in traditional medicine.

This huge demand has led to problems with the supply of the more potent wild ginseng, as it is being harvested faster than it can grow back, meaning that ginseng users have recently had to rely more on farmed ginseng. Today, ginseng is grown not only in China, but also in many East Asian countries such as Korea and Vietnam, and in the United States and Canada.

Although ginseng is usually thought of as a Chinese remedy, the ginseng that grows in America was independently discovered by Native Americans, who also used it for its medicinal properties. The fact that two cultures discovered it separately without influencing each other makes it seem more likely that there could be some truth in the traditional claims about ginseng. Areas where scientific tests seem to indicate that it might make some difference include impotence and cancer, but nothing has been proven conclusively.

There are many ways to eat and drink ginseng: the most popular is tea, but it is also possible to make soups, put it in food, or even just eat the plant’s leaves as it is. Ginseng isn’t that expensive in small quantities, so if reading this has made you curious, why not give it a try?

John Gibb is the owner of ginseng sources, For more information on ginseng please check out www.Ginseng-guidance.Info

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A poor credit history can happen to anybody at any time. In the past, a poor credit rating would make it almost impossible to get a secured loan. Then more and more lenders have come to comprehend that bad credit isn’t the end of the world and have developed a wide range of secured bad credit loans for people depending on their financial circumstances.

Now-a-days, the demand for bad credit loans has increased as more and more people have credit problems. A Bad Credit Personal Loan can bring that regularity back to a person’s life if he/she is a home owner with equity in his/her property. A Bad Credit Personal Loan is a low cost loan that is secured on person’s home. A person can use a homeowner Bad Credit Personal Loans for any purpose.

Some of the most popular uses are home improvements, luxury holiday, dream car, debt consolidation, wedding expenses, funeral costs and cosmetic surgery.

While searching for a lender for a bad credit loan, you might first check for advertisements in various newspapers, tabloids and circulars. Many lenders will advertise there from time to time and will often indicate in the ad that they welcome those with bad credit. A person may also wish to make a few calls to finance companies and other lending institutions and simply ask whether they offer loans to those with bad credit. An internet search will also yield a large number of lenders who will give you a bad credit loan. There are large numbers of providers of bad credit loans.

Now-a-days, a person with bad credit can easily get a loan, which is based on his/her credit history. In the beginning, there are limited providers of bad credit loans which will charge higher interest rates but at present there are large numbers of providers that can provide a bad credit loan on cheap rates.

Author presents a website on bad credit loans. This website provides information about bad credit loans, uses and information about bad credit loan providers. You can visit his site for more information about bad credit personal loan

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Sex toys will be difficult to introduce into a long term relationship Some folks will often notice the introduction of dildos In a relationship scary and it will probably bring up questions such as “is there something wrong with me”? Yet sex aids can be an incredible & satisfying event and dongs also help to build confidence between you and your boyfriend.

Figuring out which marital aid to choose could be an adventure. A time where you and your wife can sit down and chat about what you together want out of the thing and choose a dong together that meets both of your desires. Don?t go straight in for the main colossal dongs, just start off slow. For those who want double the pleaseure try sex with Double Ended Dildos.

Once you and your partner have chosen a vibrator & have had the bliss of opening your new vibrator you and your partner need to get into the sexy mood. Soft lighting & soft music are the perfect platform to start off any sexual experience. Make the time sensual, unplug the mobile phone, turn off the DVD player and concentrate fully on your partner. Stretched sensual stimulation before bringing out the dong is a nice idea. Romantic and sensual and loving strokes heightens the sexual sensations and helps towards a very relaxing and enjoyable event.

And please don’t forget to get into the zone, have tons of fun and enjoy it.

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People who think. People who do. People who get it.

“Wat we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly”. Paine

“Friendship based on business is better than a business based on
friendship”. Rockefeller

Do you want to know how you can save time and get higher
profits, make your product competitive and ensure its sale on
world market? Well ! But first I invite you to analyze together
the situation around the conditions of the problem. The XX
century, the latest period of the history of analytical
chemistry, was specially rich in innovations. A great
significance had the invention of chromatography (M. S. Tswett,
1903) and the subsequent development of its varieties.

The analyses of a great number of substances are based on the
use of chromatographic principles of separation. On this same
principle are based the separation of isotopes and therefore the
creation of atomic weapon and atomic power stations.

Six Nobel prizes were won by Carrer in 1932, Kuhn in 1938,
Ruzicka in 1939, Martin and Synge in 1952, Sanger in 1958 and
1980 - authors, whose achievements depended to a significant
degree on the use of chromatographic analysis.

In the development of chromatography, a process that goes on up
to-day, a definite tendency is traced. After the substantial
theoretical and technological “gush” it follows to provide the
equipment with additional parts allowing the enlargement of the
analytical possibilities of the chromatograph. On this
background it is considered in - time the development of
Chromabarography - a new basic technology of chromatography.

What does it present itself, what does it give to the user and
producer of the equipment? After all, the heart of
chromatography is the chromatographic column. The theory of gas
chromatography, presented by the equation of Van Deemter H = A +
B/u + Cu shows that for each chromatographic separation there
exists an optimal flow rate above and below which the column
efficiency is reduced.

In practice, the linear speed of the sample zone moved by the
carrier gas, is changed continuously and increases as it
approaches the outlet, which results in a non-effective use of a
part of the column.

Yet the linear speed may be kept constant by programming the
movement of the pressure gradient along the column, realizing
the function pressure - location - time and keeping ∆ p
constant at the ends of the chromatographic column during the
whole process of analysis.

For the first time in the world this basic technology was worked
out and proposed by me, based on the investigation of the
factors of diffusion and kinetics, and includes the meaning
“bar-gradient chromatography” or Chromabarography. For its
realization an equipment was invented and defended by a Russia
patent. As a result a maximum possible efficiency (Hayrapetyan’s
Effect) of column is obtained at a minimum length, which at the
same time is optimal as well, as in difference to the ordinary
column further increase in column length increases the analyses
time. However these are not the only advantages of
Chromabarography. On the contrary, new interesting possibilities
of its modifications are opened which foresee: of combined
application of the moving gradients of pressure and temperature
(Chromabarothermography)

or of the moving of pressure gradient along the column
simultaneously with temperature programming affected equally on
all the separation column (Chromabarograph with temperature
programming). Amongst other advantages of scientific value may
be mentioned: The possibility of bar-focusing on each component
to solve complex analytical problems on a singular gas
chromatographic column, in difference to two or multistage
columns.

The realization of the proposed technology and enrichment of any
chromatographic equipment of serial production with
supplementary parts is not linked with great expenses and
difficulties, and service does not require special knowledge.

The percentage of the improved products will be increased.

As similar technologies and equipments do not exist in the whole
world, demands for Chromabarographs will be significantly
increased.

The profit and circulation from the realization of the equipment
will be increased principally on account of selling the product
on international market, and following the first publications
concerning this theme it may be unpredictably much higher.

Having in hand data about the industrial capacities with account
of economy in time and expenses for investigations, and the
principal premises for working out of a new basic technology and
the Chromabarography itself, it is not difficult to count the
real income. The chromatographic apparatus by its functional
purpose may be subdivided into several groups. Devices for
standard analyses Universal chromatographs. Devices for special
significance. The universal chromatographs are the most widely
used types of the chromatographic equipment. According to
information sources, their production makes up more that 90% of
the whole quantity of chromatographic equipments. However,
taking into account that the modern chromatographs of the
leading firms include a large number of modifications, from
which it is practically possible to make up an equipment of any
special purpose, the proposed new basic technology of
chromatography - Chromabarography will be low but not less than
50% of the quantity in demand. The economic effect of the
chromatograph is determined mainly from the viewpoint of
analytical control. By expert’s evaluation the annual effect of
1 equipment varies from thousands to hundred thousands rubles
(dollars), giving a compensation period from several days to
several months for an average price of an equipment. The
commonly useful advantages of Chromabarography are obvious first
of all for scientific investigations in studying the state of
various solid supports and stationary phases for the separation
of multicomponent mixtures with a wide range of boiling points.
The analysis and estimation of conjuncture information and
patent situation provide a basis to confirm that
Chromabarography is a XXI century technology of scientific and
commercial value. Attention! Proposing the modern technology by
switching on the electronic market Internet, I am ready to
discuss any question in the frame of the information postulated
on the site

The last know - how’s and engineering in the creation of new
modifications of Chromabarography with effective synergism.
Subsequent consultations. Services rendered immediately by means
of “Hot-Line”.

Conceptions of further improvement.

Performance of temporary or permanent, including the Joint
Venture form, managering, industrial, patent licensing (all
kinds of works, as well as evaluation and defense of the right
of industrial intellectual ownership), research and innovation
works. If you are interested and have ideas and projects, or
simply wish to express your opinion, please write to Aram
Hayrapetyan Perhaps with mutual efforts we shall work out
solutions enabling the quickest use of the method and the
production of the Chromabarograph and its modifications in
analytical instrument-making. Would you agree to such a plan?

P. S. “The best mental effort in the game of “business”, is
concerntrated on the major problem of securing the consumer’s
dollar before the other fellow getsit”. Chase

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A good definition of a conservation easement is a legal agreement through which a landowner gives up certain uses and developmental rights in the land by way of a series of restrictions. In exchange, certain other rights, including the right to enforce the restrictions, are granted to a non-profit conservation organization or a government agency involved in park or natural area protection. Conservation easement properties can maintain rights to some uses while enjoying the benefits of protection.

The Drovers Road Preserve easement (www.DroversRoad.com), developed by Equinox Environmental, protects 110 acres, allowing specified development on the other 76 acres. Each residential lot adjoins the Preserve lands, providing easy access to miles of hiking and equestrian trails. The easement permanently protects a majority of the forested, mountainous terrain from all future development. It is held by the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy and registered in Buncombe County. Very little North Carolina mountain real estate is protected in this way.

What is protected by conservation easements?

Conservation easements are tailored to the particular characteristics of the land. First, a complete natural resource inventory is developed, including maps, photographs of existing improvements, species lists, etc. By identifying sensitive areas, land use patterns, and any areas where limited development may be allowed, the inventory provides the conceptual framework for drafting the easement. At Drovers Road Preserve, the easement protects 59% of the entire property, including rare species habitat, four rare vascular plants, sensitive water resources, and the 150-year-old forest stands along the ridgeline.

How do conservation easements differ from restrictive covenants in subdivisions?

Though similar in that both govern how a property may be developed, land with a conservation easement differs in several significant ways from subdivisions under a restrictive covenant. Subdivision restrictions encourage controlled development of the property in order to protect private property values. Conservation easements, by contrast, are by definition designed primarily to preserve property in its natural state. Though many easements allow certain specified uses, a conservation easement is intended to provide benefits to the public at large, not just individual homeowners, by protecting native habitats and resident species of plants and animals.

Is a conservation easement a legally binding document?

If the easement will continue to bind future owners of the land, and if the donor wishes to claim a charitable contribution for the conveyance, it must be registered in the public land records (the “Registry”) of the county or counties where the property is located. Drovers Road Preserve, as a registered conservation easement property in Buncombe County, is legally protected from additional development for all future generations.

Corey Creed works with Drovers Road Preserve to encourage others to appreciate the beauty of this North Carolina Mountain Real Estate. Please visit http://www.DroversRoad.com to learn more.

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The foreign exchange market is exploding! About two trillion dollars are being traded
daily! and yet Americans are lagging far behind their international counterparts in entering
this market. How can this be? Americans have never taken the backseat to anyone in any
financial market. Why is forex the exception?

Having lived my first 20 years in Greece and my last thirty in America, I believe I can
offer an educated guess. The American dollar has been the super colossus of currency.
Americans never had to think in terms of their currency’s equivalence to any other
currency. This kind of “dollar isolationism” has made the American mind
resistant to thinking in currency pairs, which is the heart of the forex market. How do we
overcome this apparent handicap? education!

I am going to try to introduce the forex market concepts through a real life example.
In 1955 My father and my uncle received $100 each from their aunt in Chicago. At the
time one dollar was worth 15 Greek drachmas. My father decided that his 100 USDs
were not doing him any good in Greece so he exchanged them and got his 1500 DRMs.
My uncle kept the 100USDs unchanged for a while. Then, one fine morning, Greece woke
up to the news that the government had devalued the drachma. Instead of one USD being
worth 15 DRMs, it was now worth 30!. My uncle was ecstatic. His dollars had doubled in
value. Instead of 1500 DRMs he could now get 3000 with his 100 USDs. My father was
inconsolable. He had sold his 100 dollars and now had 1500 drachmas in the bank instead
of 3,000 DRMs worth of USDs.

This is the kind of exchange that make up the forex market. But you do need to learn the
forex lingo in order to communicate and understand the forex world. Now let us apply
forex lingo to our illustration above. In this lingo, my father did not sell his 100 dollars to
buy 1500 drachmas. What he did was: “he sold the USD/DRM currency pair”.
When you “sell a pair” it means that you exchange the first member of the pair
for the second. When you “buy a pair” it means that you exchange the second
member of the pair for the first member of the pair. When you buy the pair
USD/DRM You give up your drachmas and hold dollars. That is what my uncle did.
When you sell the USD/DRM pair you give up your dollars and hold drachmas, that is
what my father did. The key to these transactions is to be positioned on the side of the
member of the pair that will appreciate against the other member.

In order to illustrate and further practice the forex lingo of buying and selling a
pair, lets apply it to buying a car. In forex lingo you cannot say that you bought
a car for $10,000. In forex you first define the pair, in this case it would be
dollars/car or USD/CAR. If you say that you bought the USD/CAR pair it would

mean that you exchanged the second part of the pair for the first. You gave up
the car in order to get the dollars. That is what the car dealer did. If you say
that you sold the USD/CAR pair it would mean that you exchanged the first part

of the pair for the second. That is what YOU did, you exchanged the first part
of the pair “dollars”, in order to get the second, “car”. Moral of the story? Don’t get hung
up on the terms buy and sell, look at the order of the pairs.

Another way to express the same thing in forex lingo is actually easier to grasp.
You can say that when you bought the car, you went long on the CAR and short
on the USD. The dealer went long on the USD and short on the CAR. Going long on one
member of a pair means that you chose to position yourself as holding that member.
Conversely, going short on a member of a pair means that you positioned yourself with
the opposite member.

If you like this kind of “from the ground up” approach to explaining forex markets,
please stay tuned to this site. In the next article I submit, I will discuss some of the
advantages of trading in forex and also some concepts like “pip” and “carry”.

John douramacos is an internet marketer with interest in
the financial markets

http://www.4xtradingtrends.com/

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Well-written, tightly-focused articles are in high demand by thousands of online publishers. Why? Because publishers view good content as a value-added asset, enhancing their own brand awareness and deepening relationships with clients and customers.

As a content provider, you can attract a substantial and continuous flow of new prospects from online venues that might otherwise be inaccessible. And unlike other promotional methods, you get this traffic without spending a penny on advertising.

The three techniques below make it easy for publishers –your willing and enthusiastic partners– to find and publish your material.

1. Syndicate Your Articles

Syndicating your articles makes it easy for site owners to put your content on their website. It’s a real time-saver and totally hands-off for webmasters.

Automation is a big selling point of online syndication. The syndicating site simply inserts 2 lines of code on their web page, and your articles are distributed from your server to their web page automatically. You have total control over content and style, while the webmaster never lifts a finger again.

It’s an ideal situation for you. Once a site agrees to accept your articles through syndication, you are freed from the job of marketing each article individually to the site owner. A marketer’s dream!

For details on setting up your syndicated feed, read this article by William Bontrager:

http://www.homebiztools.com/syndication.htm

One of the first places to start marketing your syndicated feed is on your website. Post a sample article so others can see the quality of your work, and show them how to set up their web page to accept your articles.

For additional marketing muscle, solicit webmasters from the resource box of your article. Include a line to let them know your column is available for syndication.

Lastly, get listed in syndicated article directories such as those found at Freesticky.com and StickySuace.com. Traffic from directories is highly targeted and more likely to result in a syndication arrangement.

2. Publish Your Own News Channel

Your own news channel allows you to broadcast your content to the Web with one text file. The protocol to accomplish this is called RSS. This stands for Really Simple Syndication (or Rich Site Summary, depending on who you talk to). Weblogs are an example of content commonly available in RSS.

Once created, your RSS content file can be read by news aggregator programs. By registering with aggregator sites, your feed is indexed and made available for sites interested in receiving your feed. You can see my own news feed in action at NetBizHelpers.com.

Here are some excellent sites with articles on setting up and registering your news channel:

Mark Nottingham’s RSS Tutorial

http://www.mnot.net/rss/tutorial/

Technology at Harvard Law

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss

O’Reilly XML.com

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html

3. Submit To Article Directories and Announcement Lists

Many publishers subscribe to announcement lists and browse article directories for content. High-quality articles are regularly picked up from these sources. It’s not uncommon for a good article to be published in several ezines with combined readerships in the tens of thousands.

Here is a listing of popular spots to submit your articles online:

http://www.homebiztools.com/article-dir.htm

To begin posting your articles on announcement lists:

http://www.homebiztools.com/article-lists.htm

There you have it! Three great ways to market your articles and give publishers what they need, while you enjoy no-cost advertising.

Brett Krkosska is a freelance writer and syndicated columnist. He is the owner and founder of http://www.HomeBizTools.com. an idea center for small/home-based business owners.

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OUR CAT GOT OUT

One night our “indoor only” cat, Julian, got out through an open second-story window and wandered off. We quickly learned the next morning how little we really knew about what he would do and how to get him back. Julian is the sweetest, most adorable cat, but he’s dumb as a box of rocks, and we knew he would have no idea how to get home. We hadn’t thought he needed a collar, being an indoor cat, nor did he have a microchip implant with our information should he be found and taken to the local humane association or vet’s office.

For two days my husband and I walked our neighborhood for five blocks in each direction, asking everyone on the street if they had seen him. We put up fliers with his picture and enlisted the eager help of young neighbor children. We called his name over and over as we walked with a bag of food that we would shake. One of our friends brought a dog to sniff him out. Julian never answered and was nowhere to be found. It was like he has simply vanished.

Finally we found him about fifty feet from his point of escape, hiding in a neighbor’s garage. The garage door had been open most of the time he was missing and we had walked right by him numerous times, calling his name. In spite of that he didn’t meow and he didn’t come home. We figured it was because the home had two large dogs and he was frozen with fear. Don’t overlook a home or yard just because it has dogs that live there! Our cat was right under the nose of two so-called retrievers who never noticed him. We went back around the neighborhood and told everyone that we had found him. By that point they cared too!

DON’T FREEZE UP

Don’t fall into the trap of GRIEF AVOIDANCE where you tell yourself the cat is already gone for good; you won’t be able to avoid the pain of loss by saying it’s just a cat. Your cat is probably within a five block radius and can most likely be found!

We learned from the shelters and vets that any cat can become “displaced” when moved, chased or otherwise dislocated from its territory, like jumping out a window. For indoor cats, the inside of its home is its territory, so it will quickly feel displaced once outside.

WHAT DO CATS DO?

Disoriented and afraid, most “indoor only” cats will NOT come to you even if they know your voice, recognize you or your scent, or hear the sound of food being shaken. Their instinct is to hunker down in a concealed place, USUALLY NEAR THE POINT OF ESCAPE. They will NOT MEOW because that would tell predators where they are. This is not because the cat does not love you; rather, silence is a scared cat’s survival instinct.

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Your best technique for finding the cat is to GO HOUSE TO HOUSE in your neighborhood, checking every area in which a cat could conceal itself, such as under porches, in bushes, under decks, up trees, anywhere small enough for a cat to fit. Ask your neighbors if you can search their property. All of ours said yes and most got out and helped. Call a few friends to help you. More people can cover a wider area and the moral support will help you. If it is nighttime, use flashlights as they will reflect the cat’s eyes. Remember: cats do not run away; they are waiting to be found.

You can also rent a HUMANE TRAP from most humane associations for about ten dollars. These are also sold at home stores like Fleet Farm or Home Depot. The traps look like long cages. Set one up near your home by a door and put kitty’s food inside. Once the cat gets inside to chow down, the back of the trap drops and he’s safely inside.

You should also contact the police and let them know your cat is missing. They are the ones who pick up injured and dead animals from roadways and can let you know if a cat matching yours has been found. Also contact the local humane association and give them a description of your cat so they can identify him if someone brings him in. Call them daily and make friends with the people who answer the phone. Write their numbers down in one place so if you need to call the next day you won’t have to look it up each time.

Of course, putting up fliers and placing an ad in the newspaper might help as well, but these methods are far less immediate than GOING THROUGH THE NEIGHBORHOOD WITH A FIND TOOTH COMB, ESPECIALLY NEAR THE POINT OF ESCAPE, AS SOON AS YOU FIND THE CAT IS MISSING.

Finally, don’t lose heart! While it’s hard to stay focused when you are emotionally distraught, remember that most cats get lost during their lives and most are found and return home. Unfortunately, lost cats need YOU to find THEM, not the reverse. You have to be persistent and determined. A methodical strategy is your best chance of getting him back. Our vet heard of a cat that was missing for 54 days, and due to the owner’s persistence returned home safely. Don’t give up!

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