Ljubo and Srećic

These are my two cats, Ljubo and Srećica.

Ljubo is a recently adopted ex-feral/stray cat, but not of the street-savvy kind at all. He is used to living in people's gardens and backyards, and not used to the street at all.

I ordered Tabcat after a dramatic episode when his curiosity caused him to get stranded on the street. He must have jumped out of a street facing window, and no one noticed and the window got closed so he couldn't get back. I searched for him like a maniac for two days. By random luck a neighbour eventually found him hiding under a nearby car, scared, hungry and filthy as a miner. He was so close by the whole time, but too scared to come out. For all I know I may have walked right past him a dozen times while searching for him.

I decided I never wanted to go through this stress again so I googled cat tracking devices. I went with Tabcat because it seemed to be the most compact of all, and also quite affordable.

Ever since I equipped him with Tabcat I’ve been much more at peace.

Well, the street-side windows have nets on them now, so hopefully he won’t be wandering in that direction again, and will stick to the gardens instead, but I still feel so much more at peace knowing I can track him.

Another interesting thing I have noticed is that he comes every time I call him now. He didn't use to. I think this may be because he is deaf in one ear, and he might not always hear me when I call. But he can hear the tag beeping when I turn on the tracker, and I think he has learned to associate it with me calling him. He rushes straight home when I press the button. I really didn't expect that!

My other cat, Srećica, doesn’t roam far and doesn’t really even go outside without me, however she has managed to get lost inside the building hallway, more than once. She goes up the stairs and ends up on the 6th floor in the attic or in the basement, and oddly, doesn't know how to get back. She gets terribly confused by stairs and the fact that every floor in the building looks the same, so when she gets to the last floor she squeezes into a corner and cries for help until she is found, but no one can hear her, so being found can take a while. Not the most glorious of cat adventures, I'm afraid.

Well in this particular case, a radio device turns out to be much more helpful than a GPS, and this is another reason why I chose Tabcat over some GPS devices also available on the market. A GPS would be useless with a cat like her. It would show me she is in the building, and nothing more. Radio is much more precise and can lead you up or down as well.

I have also used Tabcat to locate her at home, when it was time to go to the vet. Because I swear she reads my mind and hides before I even pick up the transporter. And she hides really, really well. There was even an occasion in the past when I had to cancel a vet’s appointment because the cat could not be found. Yet she was in the house, the whole time.

Tabcat totally blows her cover, every time. No more hiding from the vet. :)