"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.

"If the cats get up the nerve to leave the house, maybe we can catch them," she said.

Gould's story was all too familiar to Laurie McMannon, manager of the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, who stood outside Town Hall yesterday collecting names and descriptions of missing cats.

"This is huge," she said. "These people, they need help. They want to find their pets. They're dealing with all these other things, between losing their belongings and possibly their house, but on top of that, their living beings."

McMannon urged anyone who finds a lost cat to first contact the Danvers police, then call the Danvers Animal Hospital and Northeast Animal Shelter. The shelters anticipate they will be housing many cats, lost and not, as displaced residents work out their living arrangements.

Not every story yesterday was a sad one, however. Standing outside Town Hall in her pajamas and sandals, Jen Lynch of 12 Bates Ave. received a phone call that her cat, Luna, had been rescued by a Peabody firefighter.

"I'm happy," she said. "I haven't seen him yet, but it's the one thing I've got."

HOW YOU CAN HELP

r If you think you may have found a lost cat, contact the Danvers police at 978-774-1212.

r If you would like to help, contact the Danvers Animal Hospital at 978-774-0045 or the Northeast Animal Shelter at 978-745-9888.