Missing Cat Poster: Free Template and What to Put on It

Your cat’s out there somewhere, and a good missing cat poster is worth making tonight. The right photo and a few plain lines do most of the work. Put a recent photo on it, with your cat’s recognisable features and your contact details, and keep everything else off. Print more copies than you think you need. You’ll find places for them.

What to put on a missing cat poster

Start with the photo. Use the most recent one you have, where your cat’s face and markings are clear. A well-lit photo beats a cute one. If the only decent photo shows your cat on a Christmas jumper, use it anyway.

Make the headline do the work. LOST CAT, in letters big enough to read from a passing car. Under that, your cat’s name, then a short description: colour, breed or “tabby”, size, and anything distinctive. A torn ear, a white sock on one paw, a loud meow. These are the details that make someone look twice at the cat under their shed.

Say whether to approach. “Please don’t chase, call me” is worth a line. A friendly cat can carry “pick me up, I’m harmless”.

If she’s an indoor cat, add “indoor cat, may be frightened” to the description. Our page on why indoor cats go missing and where to look first goes further.

Give one phone number, the one you’ll answer. Add your first name so people know who they’re asking for. If your cat is microchipped, say so on the poster. “Microchipped” tells anyone who finds her that an approachable cat can be scanned for a chip at a vet or rescue centre.

Note where she likes to hide. Under cars, in garages, behind bins. It tells people where to look, and it tells them the quiet lump in their shed is worth a second glance. Ask neighbours and delivery people to check their homes, sheds, outbuildings and vehicles too, since a cat could be hiding inside or underneath a parked car or van.

What to leave off

Leave your home address and microchip number off. A phone number is all anyone needs to reach you, and a poster on a lamppost is visible to everyone, not just the helpful ones.

Skip the reward line. Scammers call owners of missing pets claiming to have found them, then ask for a “processing fee” or vet costs and keep the money. If someone says they have your cat, ask them to describe her markings or send a photo before you agree to anything.

Be just as wary of anything that arrives by email. Messages from databases you don’t use, asking for money to register your pet, could be a scam.

A missing cat poster template

Copy this into any document, drop your photo in, and print. Keep the wording short; nobody reads a paragraph at a bus stop.

LOST CAT

[Recent photo, as large as the page allows]

Name: [cat’s name]

Description: [colour, breed, size, one or two distinctive features]

Last seen: [street or area, date]

May be hiding in: [sheds, garages, under cars]

Please [call me, don’t chase / approach gently, she’s friendly]

Microchipped: [yes]

Call or text: [your number]

Ask for: [your first name]

Where to put your missing cat posters

Think about where people in your area stop and look: shops, vets, pubs, notice boards and through neighbours’ doors. Slip them into plastic sleeves so they survive the weather.

Ask before you pin anything up inside a shop or pub. Outside, stick to public notice boards and things you own, such as your fence or front gate.

Don’t stop at your own street. Cats roam widely, so ask around locally and widen your poster run to the surrounding streets. Pair it with the same photo and description in local social media groups.

Keep them up longer than feels reasonable. Cats Protection says they often reunite cats with their owners weeks, months or even years after they went missing. Replace weathered posters as they fade. If you need a realistic picture, see our page on how the odds change over time.

The poster is one part of the search. Our guides to what to do when your cat goes missing and searching your area and who to alert cover the door-knocking side of it.

Why the chip record matters alongside the poster

The poster works on its own, but the chip is your backstop. The chip is a tiny implant that holds a number, and the record is your name, phone number and address on a database linked to that number. In England, cat microchipping is compulsory, while in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland it’s optional. Cats Protection’s latest figures put 73% of UK cats as microchipped, which leaves more than one in five without one. If yours isn’t chipped yet, our cat microchipping page explains how to get it done.

If yours is chipped, check the details before you need them. Keeping your microchip record current is your job, and the database may charge a fee for updates. A Censuswide survey for Pet Database found owners last checked their pet’s microchip details an average of 15 weeks ago, with almost a third never checking at all.

A good poster does the loud work on your streets, and an accurate chip record does the rest. If your cat is still missing, report a missing pet with Pet Database.