Classic complete cover type

The vet says you’ve got about a week to find him. After that the cat will forget its owner’s voice.

So if he’s in hiding he won’t come out?

Exactly.

Well take a look at this. This website categorizes indoor cats, meaning those that have no outdoor skills, into three personality types. The first type is the classic complete cover, the second the amiable walkabout type and the third is the feral wanderer type.

Leo’s not feral.

He’s the classic complete cover type.

The what?

Classic complete cover. Fears outdoors, doesn’t take to strangfers,

He’s gone into hiding. Maybe no more than a few houses away. But being outside makes him a hider. Lurks under cars, burrows into stuff stacked in dark sheds, won’t come out.

And how do you deal with that?

Flyers, walk around calling his name in the quiet of the night, maybe even go so far as to set traps. Look, in some of these cases people have searched for weeks, months even, and the cat has turned up. So the vet’s view may not be totally right.

But in this case we have extra factors: lots of dogs, traffic, birds sounding a very early dawn chorus, not to mention those fearsome crows which might push him further away. And then he’ll be even less likely to emerge.

Which is why we have to go out right now, in the dead of night, calling out 'Leo, Leo,' and rustling his nosh bag.