Im a cat owner and sitter. I have 5 cats one of which always runs for the door. A guest left the door open and my boy escaped. He was gone for 5 days and i was devastated. Indoor cats will almost always stay within a block or so of their home. They get outside and are often terrified. They tend to hunker down until they get more comfortable in their immediate area. They are most active at night and early morning. Look in your neighborhood, particularly under bushes, backyards and under houses near. Shake their treat bag while calling for them softly and try not to sound stressed while doing so. Personally speak to your neighbors and ask them to call you if they spot a cat that looks like yours. I found my boy 2 streets over in a backyard. The homeowner called me at 11pm and said he thought he saw him. I had several false sightings but it helped getting the neighborhood involved. Good look on finding your pet.
Thank you for that. I have done those things for awhile. I now have two traps in front of my house. Keeping my fingers crossed as itās been ten weeks.
I apologize, Ellen I didnāt realize how long it has been and that others had made the same suggestions. Please donāt give up hope. I had a friend find her cat after 5 months. My heart goes out to you.
Honestly that person should be banned from the site. You have a much more positive outlook than I would right now. I hope you find kitty.
His choices show a definite lack of critical thinking that led to the loss of your beloved pet. While he may not make that exact mistake again, he has clearly shown that he doesnāt make good choices when it comes to animal safety. I definitely think a sitter losing your pet does not deserve a 5 star review, and I say that as a sitter and PP. hope you can present the truth kindly, but heās not a perfect sitter and his review should reflect that.
@Ellen1
I just thought I would share this with you from my local page. Never lose hope.
Thatās fab @botvot & heart warming too 
I finally left a very fair review. On the advice of many who responded, I presented the facts, both positive and negative about his sit. I tried to be as objective as possible. Iām a sitter, too, and Iām not perfect, but his actions still keep me scratching my head. This is something Iād want to know about in a prospective sitter as a homeowner.
Agree.
Itās very tough for all of us to pass judgment because we havenāt seen the set up, donāt know the personality of your cats to know how opportunistic they are, and also donāt know how everything else on your sit went.
I posted about a similar situation where we had a sitter that was great in every way except that they broke our number one rule which was keep the dog on a lead when ever you leave the house. This led to our dog getting attacked and being hospitalised.
We left a review that was very honest which was everything was done well except the overall welfare of our pet.
We wrote that in our review and also expressed that we believed the sitter had learned from their mistakes and wished them well. It was a very tough review to write but we did our best to stick to the facts.
Iāve just stalked that sitterās account and they have had a sit since and it went very well and the sits before us also went well. I do believe they have learned their lesson but again, only you have experienced the full scope of what the sitter was like.
TLDR, be honest but be fair in both directions. No more or less is needed.
While I agree with you about reading the responsibilities section, to be fair, I find there to be no structure to that section and I wish it was a requirement for pet owners to indicate how long their dogs can be left alone or let out in there. Oftentimes it doesnāt mention any of that and someone has lazily entered āfeed dogs, and take on walks.ā Which says nothing. Then when you chat with them, they mention they never leave their dogs alone and you canāt be gone more than an hour (true story)ā¦ These I believe should be paid sits. If I canāt get my work done in your home, itās not the right sit for me. I wish THS would put a feature indicating this as a requirement. I ask every single time I am doing to do a sit, usually in the introductory email as well or on the video chat.
Am pretty sure theyāve added a few new features onto the dog categories where you say how long you will walk for, how big a dog you can care for and possibly how long the dog can be left for. We filled it in last time we updated our profile @kdukat - might be worth having a look 
Wishing you the best in finding your cat. Please let us know when you do. I know the sitter must feel terrible. Youāve approached this situation very kindly.
I always give the instruction that my dog is not to be off leash with sitters and that if she is outdoors in an enclosed environment that the sitter be present and gates be shut. You couldnāt have avoided this with advance instruction really as who would anticipate this sort of situation. But it was an error in judgment. Animals can get through spaces that appear to be half of their size.
Still, on two of two sits with first time unpaid sitters Iāve been called by perfect strangers who had my dog who had gone wandering off to find Mom. Sheās not an escape artist at all. But she will wander out of a garage door or garden gate if itās open. She can only be off leash around me.
Now I donāt use unknown sitters. Iāve gone back to paid sitters. The same ones, repeatedly.
On two sits, Iāve found gates left ajar by the regular gardener or window washers. Now, I check before letting dogs outside after such folks visit. In both cases, it was just fortunate that the dogs werenāt runners.
Thank you, Botvet. I still keep two traps in front of the house, signs are still up in the neighborhood, fingers are crossed. But I have to be realistic that I may never see him again or know what happened to him.
@bakindoki Your comment led me to go back and check that sitterās profile. Turns out he is currently inactive (!)
Also turns out he had a succession of subsequent sits. Some went well. Others sounded like total disasters.
Seems like I got a bad appleāhe is not suited for house sitting.
Unfortunately Iāve been unsuccessful locating the cat. Now that itās going on four months I have to accept I will likely never see him again. I just hope he is alive and in good hands.
This is devastating to hear :ā(
I hope whatever the result, you have what you need to come out of this ordeal. 
If you ever do end up using the platform againā¦looking at the reviews is no joke. I learned that the hard way last year. We now go over every application with a fine-toothed comb.
I really hope that if not with you, your cat ends up in a good place. Hopefully, if microchipped, someone will eventually scan and see youāre looking! 
Iām currently sitting a dog and two cats, one of whom keeps trying to get out through the door as the dog and I exit to the backyard. That cat sits, waiting for us to go in or out, and heās sat by that glass door and meowed as if he wants out, which Iāve previously experienced with sit cats that live outdoor part of the time. I worry this current sit cat will escape and I keep squeezing myself and the dog in and out.
Iāve suggested to my hosts that they build the boys a catio or have one built, so maybe they wonāt be so desperate to get out and will enjoy the outdoors a bit.
The cats and year-old dog donāt get along (Iāve had to gate them apart) and my hosts say that the cats resent that the dog gets to go out.
Apparently both cats have escaped before when my hosts have left the door ajar by accident. That would be my nightmare. I think in future Iāll ask about individual sit catsā propensity to want to escape, whether theyāre chipped or geotagged, and how owners have lured them back if theyāve escaped before.
Not all cats want out. I sat a pair where one cat never went near the open door, which I was told to leave ajar for the other cat, who lived indoors and out.
@bakindoki Thank you for your kind words.
At the time I booked the sitter, he was about to complete his first sit for THS and had sat for his sisterās cat previously. Because I didnāt have any written reviews I asked for contact information for the HO. I had a phone conversation with him and didnāt pick up any red flags, so I went ahead and booked him.
The negative reviews were posted for subsequent sits.
At the beginning of the sit he mentioned that the cat who eventually got out was slow to warm up to him. This was a friendly cat and usually the first to warm up to visitors. At the time I didnāt think anything of it thinking it could just be mix of personalities. And, based on his subsequent comments and pics, the cat later warmed up to him. However, a subsequent reviewer stated her cat had a strong negative reaction to him.
Another detail is that the house did not have openings for escape until the sitter opened the main wooden door to the houseās entrance and removed the pane of glass of the wrought iron security door providing openings through the wrought iron rods spaced about four inches apart.
That was a deliberate act.
This sitter failed to do several things:
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He failed to alert me to the unusual situation (loud noises and catās subsequent spraying).
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He failed to ask for permission to remove the glass. In my wildest dreams I did not contemplate a sitter dismantling things in my home.
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Even with removing the glass, he could have put the cats in a room and closed the door to confine them.
In his description, the cat did not run out immediately. When he spied the opening his curiosity got the better of him and he stepped outside to explore. Once out he was spooked and ran.
No, this was negligence and poor judgment on the part of the sitter. I hope he doesnāt have any more opportunities to sit.
@Maggie8K What you describe is a more difficult situation. I hope the owners do follow through with a catio or some other accommodation.
In my case, the cat while curious, actually preferred to be indoors. He would not normally be at the door waiting for the smallest opportunity to run out, but he would be open to exploring anything new or different in his environment.
With this further clarification, yea. Thatās pretty bad!!! Ugh! This really makes you so scared to take chances on new people.
We only have two reviews as HS because weāre mostly HO but I got as many external reviews as I could, provide a link to our HO profile and my dog training site and socials in our initial message to people, and I insist on a video chat before confirming anything with an HO. Even then, I still totally get if people hesitate at us.
All we can do is our best to vet people in either direction. Iām so sorry that sitter didnāt work out for you!
I canāt get over removing the glass tho and your description of the fact that they saw the cat think about it first and still left it like thatā¦smdh.
This is almost exactly what happened to us with two sitters after they lost our cat. Itās why I am leaving the platform after almost a decade as a member. The laisse-faire response from Trustedhousesitters that allowed the sitters to stay on the website for another 6 months destroyed any confidence I had in this platform.