OSRS How To Call Cat: The Complete Guide To Locating Your Pet

Calling your pet cat in Old School RuneScape requires using the Amulet of Avarice, the Catspeak amulet, or specific dialogue mechanics depending on whether your feline has wandered off, run away, or been lost during gameplay. Master the mechanics of pet management, death recovery, and Gertrude's Cat mechanics to ensure your companion is never permanently lost in Gielinor.

Prerequisites and Pet Recovery Fundamentals

Before attempting to locate or summon your stray or hidden feline companion in Old School RuneScape, you must understand the underlying mechanics of pet tracking, death reclaiming, and the critical differences between standard kittens, full-grown cats, hellcats, and wily cats. Pets in OSRS do not feature a global tracking radar or a single click-to-summon spell like modern MMO companions. Instead, locating a lost cat requires checking your Player Owned House (POH), interacting with specific NPCs, or using specialized communication gear.

• Essential gear and magic items: Catspeak amulet (or Catspeak amulet e), Amulet of Glory for quick teleportation, and standard house teleport tablets.
• Mandatory prerequisite knowledge: Understanding that growing cats turn into rats after a certain amount of time if neglected, and that abandoning a cat completely removes it from the active game world after a timer expires.
• Time and resource benchmarks: Recovering a lost cat typically takes under five minutes if utilizing house portals, costing zero gold coins aside from minor teleportation fees.

Step-by-Step Instructions to Recover and Call Your Cat

Step 1: Check Your Player Owned House Menagerie

The most common reason players cannot find their cat is that the animal was left inside a Player Owned House Menagerie or wandering freely within the POH grounds. When you enter build mode or standard mode in your house, pets left roaming will stay in place unless retrieved.

1. Teleport directly to your Player Owned House using a teleport to house spell or tablet.
2. Enter the POH and walk directly into the Menagerie room if you have one constructed.
3. Check if your cat is wandering around the main rooms, gardens, or caged within the Menagerie item repository interface.
4. Interact with the pet house or use the Call Servant or pet management interface to check the active status of your follower.

Pro-Tip: If your cat was following you when you logged out or entered an instance where followers are dismissed, it automatically defaults to standing outside the bank where you last triggered a pet check or inside your POH Menagerie.

Step 2: Search Bank Inventories and Deposit Boxes

Cats in Old School RuneScape can be stored safely in bank placeholders or inventory slots when they are in kitten or cat form, provided they are not actively following you as an active follower.

1. Open any bank booth or chest across Gielinor, such as those found at the Grand Exchange or Edgeville.
2. Search through your bank tabs for your specific cat item, as cats in inventory form occupy a single inventory slot and can easily be misplaced behind potions or armor sets.
3. Withdraw the cat into your active inventory.
4. Click on the cat in your inventory to drop it to the ground, which immediately changes its status back to a following companion if you meet the pet capacity limits.

Step 3: Speak to Gertrude for Lost Quest Cats

If you lost your original quest cat from the Gertrude's Cat storyline and cannot locate it in your bank or house, you can obtain a replacement cat under specific game conditions.

1. Travel west of Ardougne to Gertrude's house where the original quest takes place.
2. Speak directly to Gertrude about your missing cat.
3. Pay the nominal fee of 100 coins to Gertrude to acquire a brand-new kitten if your previous cat has run away or died permanently.
4. Ensure your inventory has enough space and that you do not currently have another cat stashed away in your bank, as Gertrude will not hand over a new kitten if an active cat already exists in your possession.

Warning: Leaving a hungry cat unattended for too long will cause it to run away permanently. If your cat runs away, you will receive an in-game chat message warning you, and you must acquire a replacement from Gertrude.

Comparison of OSRS Cat Types and Retrieval Methods

Troubleshooting Common Cat Retrieval Issues

• Root Cause: The cat has completely vanished from the game world due to starvation or a logout timer expiration while wandering outside an instanced area.
  
  
  • Actionable Fix: Visit Gertrude in West Ardougne to purchase a replacement kitten for 100 coins, ensuring you feed it regularly with raw sardines or other raw fish to prevent future abandonment.
• Root Cause: The pet interface shows the follower slot is occupied, but no cat is visually appearing behind your character model.
  
  
  • Actionable Fix: Use the teleport to your Player Owned House or hop game worlds to force the game engine to refresh entity coordinates and render your follower correctly.
• Root Cause: You cannot interact with your cat using normal dialogue options because you lack the required amulet.
  
  
  • Actionable Fix: Equip a Catspeak amulet, which can be crafted during or after Icthlarin's Little Helper quest, to properly understand and converse with your feline.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I stop my OSRS cat from running away?

Your cat will run away if it is left unfed for too long or if you ignore its meowing prompts. To keep your cat happy and prevent it from deserting you, use raw fish on the cat regularly to feed it until it displays a message indicating it is full.

Can I have multiple cats out at the same time in OSRS?

No, Old School RuneScape limits players to having only one active cat following them at a time. If you attempt to withdraw or drop a second cat while one is following you, the game will prevent you from doing so until the first cat is banked or dismissed.

What happens to my cat if I die in the Wilderness?

If you die in dangerous PvP or PvM activities while your cat is following you, the cat will automatically be lost, and you cannot reclaim it from death's coffer. You will need to obtain a brand-new kitten from Gertrude or raise another one from your bank reserves.

How long does it take for a kitten to grow into a full cat?

A kitten takes approximately three hours of in-game time to grow into a full-grown cat, provided it is kept fed and entertained. Once fully grown, it can be traded to the citizen in West Ardougne for 100 Death runes or allowed to age further into an overgrown cat.

Optimize your Old School RuneScape gameplay and master rare pet mechanics by exploring our comprehensive database of skill guides and quest walkthroughs today.