What Caused More Than A Dozen Cats To Go Missing From One Bangor Neighborhood?

Jennifer Delano has lived in the area known as Fairmount Park in Bangor for 15 years. A self-described "crazy cat lady", Delano has seven cats, four of which are allowed outside.

"None of mine are allowed outside overnight. I do have four that are allowed outside during the day. Only one of them goes far, and he actually goes to the golf course sometimes, which I've always been worried about, so when he does his afternoon check-ins, to make sure his food is still out, I don't allow him back out for the rest of the day, and he's pretty good about it...but I've started to make my own adjustments so that I don't lose any."

Delano, who is part of an online neighborhood watch group, noticed a while back that there seemed to be an uptick in posts on their watch Facebook Page about cats in the area that had gone missing.

"We have a neighborhood group, and people always post 'Hey my cat hasn't come home,' like whatever; normal stuff. But when it started to get to like 5 or 6 that I had noticed, I was kind of like 'alright, this is weird. Something weird is going on."

Delano says she took the time to check in with many of the people who had made the posts, to see if their cats had returned, and most of them had not.

"So then I decided to make a little map of where each of these cats was missing from, because I knew that they were all directly close to me, either I recognized their names or the street. Because Fairmount's neighborhood encompasses a lot, but this was all, as it turned out, pretty close to the golf course and where I personally live."

Delano, who also fosters cats, says she's always paying attention to reports of lost cats and has even helped reunite a couple of them with their families. But when she saw that there were so many reports of missing animals in such a short period of time, she became concerned.

She reached out to Bangor's Animal Control Officer, Trisha Bruen, to let her know about the situation.

She also posted the map and her findings on the neighborhood Facebook page, to get feedback from other residents and cat owners in the area. Once she did that, Delano said the number of missing cats went from 6 to 7, then jumped up to 12, pretty quickly.

"People were chiming in saying 'my cat's been missing' and 'my cat's been missing' all within the same general area."

At last count, there were about 15 in this one specific area.

Delano says she encouraged people to keep a look out for the missing animals and to check their sheds and garages. She also said that if anyone spotted a cat in their yard, they should take a picture of it and share it on the page, in the hopes of tracking down some of these missing felines.

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Delano also inquired if anyone had any idea what might be the cause behind the disappearances of so many cats.

"There was talk of all the wildlife nearby that lives on the golf course, which I've always known there were coyotes there, I've seen them with my own eyes."

"There's been a bear that's made its way down to 5th Street, by the Doughty School. Fishers, fox, like we've seen them all. Everyone knows that they exist around."

Delano says a number of folks mentioned that they'd seen a lone coyote running down 7th Street very early in the morning.

She says a lot of people in town figured that's what could be behind the disappearances of all the cats in the neighborhood, but Delano wondered if that one animal could really have taken out all those cats."

"Sure. Absolutely! That's what happens when people let their animals run loose in a city, especially along where the golf course is. " That's the answer we got when we spoke with someone from the Maine Warden's Service office in Bangor.

"It's entirely possible. It could be a fox. It could be anything through there. If there's one coyote, there's many. And if there's one fox, there's many. And if there's one fisher, there are many. There are probably multiple. I'm sure it's not just one animal that's going after the resident cats."

"Bangor is fairly saturated, I think, with smaller predator animals like that. It's not uncommon, by the golf course, to see anything out there. They've had deer, they've had moose, coyotes, fox, that would be able to take a house cat, that's used to just laying around a living room, and then they let them out at night, to do whatever cats do at night. Unfortunately, that's prime hunting time for any wild animal. "

They say it's not a new issue, or even uncommon, especially in the summertime, when the wild youngsters who were born in the springtime are getting big enough to do the hunting on their own.

Delano says that the topic of getting someone to come and try to relocate the coyote was brought up, but that when she reached out to the Warden's Service, they said that would come with a price tag, and without a guarantee.

"You're never going to relocate all of the small-type predator wild animals from the city..."

"You have to figure 'What's drawing them in?' So if there's a food source that's drawing in wild animals...they're in dumpsters, they're eating roadkill. Wild animals are going to kill what they need to eat. And because there's food in town, that's why they are in town."

And for those concerned about these smaller predators being a threat to kids, the folks at the Wardens Service Office say that threat is unlikely. "

"A child is not on the menu for what a fox would eat. A cat could be, because it's an easier target. No child is going to be hauled off into the woods by a coyote or a fox or anything like that. I know that's what people are concerned about...but if you're two-year-old is outside by itself, there are other issues going on. That's not part of the snack train for a wild animal. They're looking for an easy meal out of a bird feeder, something off the grill. They're looking for people who leave their dog food outside or their cat food outside. "

"You're talking domestic versus wild. If you want to keep your domestic animal, be a good pet owner and keep it inside, in a fenced-in animal, or on a leash. That's what prevents you from losing your cat to a fox or a coyote."

"If people are concerned that their animals might not come back, they should probably make them indoor pets and not let them roam because they are at the mercy of wild animals that need to eat."

Delano says a lot of people in the neighborhood are starting to do just that, bringing their cats in at night, but she still sees cats on her ring camera, in her yard at night.

If you have witnessed any suspicious animal activity or want to report a missing animal or a wild animal sighting, contact Bangor Animal Control Officer, Trisha Bruen, by calling  trisha.bruen@bangormaine.gov  or at (207)947-7384 ext 5799.