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DANVERS - All Amy Goodnow grabbed as she fled her Riverside Drive home Wednesday morning were a pair of shoes, her car keys and her dog, Gilda.

"That's it. Not even my wallet," she said yesterday, standing outside Town Hall, where she spent the better part of the day filling out papers.

Goodnow is looking at $50,000 in damage to her home following Wednesday's explosion, but her biggest concern right now is finding her cat, Willie, whom she believes escaped through a broken window shortly after the blast.

"My gut is he's not in there," said Goodnow, who's been back to her house four times since the explosion.

She set out a bowl of cat food on the front porch, which has gone untouched. Yesterday, she planned to clean the litter box to determine whether he was still in the house.

"Then I'll know," she said.

While most residents grabbed their dogs before leaving their homes, finding their cats proved much more difficult. Cats are notoriously skittish, said Danvers Animal Hospital manager Amy Cyr, and prone to hiding or bolting when they're frightened.

Animal Control Officer Betty Heckman has been compiling descriptions of the missing cats. Police and firefighters are searching for them inside houses that are stable, and Heckman is setting traps outside those that are not. Heckman had four cats in her care as of last night.

While the strategy of setting traps has been effective for outdoor cats, it's proved problematic for house cats who are afraid to venture outside. Many owners were hesitant to set traps inside their homes because they didn't know when they'd be returning.

Some, like Holly Gould of 7 Bates St., didn't even have the option.

"The house is a total loss," she said. "It's so unsafe right now that even the firemen can't go in to get cats."

Gould and her boyfriend managed to escape from their second-floor apartment with their 12-year-old Belgian sheepdog, Kyaio, just before the ceiling collapsed. She doesn't know whether Morrigan, her 8-year-old Manx, or Kishy, her 10-year-old black cat, are even alive.

"I feel absolutely horrible," she said. "... I just see their little faces. I just can't even describe it. It's such a loss."

Still, Gould has hope that they may be found. She stood outside her home yesterday calling their names and dropped additional traps off at the command center.

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