A woman’s terrifying ordeal after her feline friend vanished has the internet abuzz about the “Japanese missing cat method.” According to a U.K. comedian, she tried all the conventional methods to get her cat to come home after he ran away, and when she had no luck for days, she became desperate.
She’s not the first person to report that this method worked.
What is the Japanese missing cat method?
According to internet lore, Japanese culture promotes a unique technique for finding runaway felines. All you have to do is find another neighborhood cat and tell them about your plight. Don’t forget the treats.
TikTok comedian Mel Moon (@mel.moon.comedian) tried this after her British Shorthair/Russian Blue mix went missing last month.
“Someone left me a comment saying, ‘have you tried the Japanese missing cat method?'” she said. “You’ve basically got to go out onto the street, find a stray or street cat, crouch down to its level, and whisper to it that you’ve lost your cat, describe your cat, in detail, give the cat your cat’s name, and then tell this cat how much yours means to you.”
“And then give it a reward. Kind of like a retainer fee, right?”
To those who don’t believe that animals can understand human language, this sounds like fantasy. Moon herself felt more than a little off her rocker when she tried it.
“As if people didn’t think I’m crazy enough, I’m out in my back garden talking to my patio cats.”
She may have felt crazy, but 10 minutes later, she felt a lot better when Wade came running home.
Moon’s video gained 3.3 million views after it popped onto her account at the end of August, and now the platform is filling up with Japanese missing cat method success stories.
“They came back TOGETHER”
This theory may sound familiar to users of what at the time was called Twitter. In 2019, @charlie0816 reported in Japanese that he tried this method after his cat went missing to similar results.
“My cat escaped two days ago and didn’t come back, but someone on Twitter said, ‘If you tell the neighborhood cats to tell your cat to come home, it works,'” he wrote. “So last night, I tried telling the stray cat living at the nearby convenience store, and this morning, my cat was back in front of the house.”
In the comments, story after story describes this technique working for worried cat owners.
“There was a time when my cat ran away, and I tried asking a nearby stray cat about it, and afterward, it was meowing loudly, so I went to check, and it was with my escaped cat!” claimed @kappukeki_sea.
Back on Moon’s video, fellow TikTokers also reported success.
“I used to have a strictly indoor cat that snuck out and was missing for days,” said @brightness_333. “I searched and searched with no luck. I also fed some stray cats in the neighborhood during this time. I asked a young orange, active tabby to ‘go find him and guide him home.’ He showed up the very next morning with my cat following behind him!”
TikToker @itsliamayuga described a similar situation and wrote that “we asked the neighbors’ cat to look for my cat and after a few hours they came back TOGETHER.”
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AloJapan.com