bkshopr_IHB
New member
When we lived in Irvine we had a pair of twin Siamese cats. One black and one grey. The cats were kept indoor in our gated community. We have heard of other Irvine non gated communities the coyote wandered into the neighborhoods and dined on small pets. We did not have much to fear about but still kept our pets including a Chihuahua indoor and only allowing the dog outside with supervision.
The 4th year one cat decided to wander out and could not find her way back due to the confusion of cookie cutter houses configured all the same and the same landscape palette with the same scents that to a disoriented pet that could have been very confusing. We spent days, weeks, and months combing through the neighborhoods and posted many fliers on stop sigh posts and we never found our cat.
While we lived in Irvine families losing pets have been a regular occurances. In our neighborhood a new flyer was posted almost weekly and the HOA declared the postings were a nuisance to the aesthetic and has taken them down immediately.
Since moving to a larger piece of properties our remaining cat has never been outside finally decided to sneak out. We were worried sick that she would be confused and not be able to find her back. Because of the well defined setbacks and larger yards our cat did not need to find a larger space else where to amuse herself. She seldom wanders off the confined of our property. She goes out every night and sometimes stayed out all night.
From my observation over the years the tricky site plan, clustering of homes, the lack of yards, setbacks, repetition of vegetation duplication of foundation planters, cookie cutter homes with the same door location, and pocket parks that lured pet away from home contributed to the difficulty for pets to finding their way home.
Several times a year we had cats that came home to a wrong house and we had to take care of the cats for a few days and post fliers to find the owners. Later we learned all the lost cats lived in same cookie cutter plans facing south like our home but situated on another street or further down the block with the same landscape palette. We have learned to put out some potted plants or some unique door mat to create the important memory points for pets to identify the home. When the pocket parks are what the pets interested in then it would be challenging for the pets to finding their way home.
It is impossible to always keeping the door close when taking grocery in from the garage and the cats might have sneaked out into the garage and spent the night in the garage and when the garage was opened the next morning the cat could have easily exited behind the vehicles. This was the number one way how most pets left the home and never came back especially for detached condos when 6 to 8 garages looking the same in the same motor courts and 40 identical motor courts in the neighborhoods.
For people who love their pets I serious would take extreme precaution and carefully consider your choices before buying a cookie cutter home. In Northpark alone a gated community without coyote and uncontrolled exits more than 150 pets were lost in a year.
The 4th year one cat decided to wander out and could not find her way back due to the confusion of cookie cutter houses configured all the same and the same landscape palette with the same scents that to a disoriented pet that could have been very confusing. We spent days, weeks, and months combing through the neighborhoods and posted many fliers on stop sigh posts and we never found our cat.
While we lived in Irvine families losing pets have been a regular occurances. In our neighborhood a new flyer was posted almost weekly and the HOA declared the postings were a nuisance to the aesthetic and has taken them down immediately.
Since moving to a larger piece of properties our remaining cat has never been outside finally decided to sneak out. We were worried sick that she would be confused and not be able to find her back. Because of the well defined setbacks and larger yards our cat did not need to find a larger space else where to amuse herself. She seldom wanders off the confined of our property. She goes out every night and sometimes stayed out all night.
From my observation over the years the tricky site plan, clustering of homes, the lack of yards, setbacks, repetition of vegetation duplication of foundation planters, cookie cutter homes with the same door location, and pocket parks that lured pet away from home contributed to the difficulty for pets to finding their way home.
Several times a year we had cats that came home to a wrong house and we had to take care of the cats for a few days and post fliers to find the owners. Later we learned all the lost cats lived in same cookie cutter plans facing south like our home but situated on another street or further down the block with the same landscape palette. We have learned to put out some potted plants or some unique door mat to create the important memory points for pets to identify the home. When the pocket parks are what the pets interested in then it would be challenging for the pets to finding their way home.
It is impossible to always keeping the door close when taking grocery in from the garage and the cats might have sneaked out into the garage and spent the night in the garage and when the garage was opened the next morning the cat could have easily exited behind the vehicles. This was the number one way how most pets left the home and never came back especially for detached condos when 6 to 8 garages looking the same in the same motor courts and 40 identical motor courts in the neighborhoods.
For people who love their pets I serious would take extreme precaution and carefully consider your choices before buying a cookie cutter home. In Northpark alone a gated community without coyote and uncontrolled exits more than 150 pets were lost in a year.
