Tips For Finding A Lost Pet

When your companion dog or cat strays from home, it can be an unpleasant experience for both of you. We offer the following tips to help you find your pet.

Contact local animal shelters and animal control agencies. File a lost pet report with your local shelter and every shelter within a sixty-mile radius of your home. Visit the shelters routinely, if possible. If there is no shelter in your community, contact the local police department. Provide an accurate description and a recent photograph of your pet. Notify the police if you believe that your pet was stolen.

Search the neighborhood. Post signs in your neighborhood (preferably with a recent picture of your lost pet and the telephone number they should call). Walk or drive through your neighborhood daily--early morning and evening are good times to look for a lost pet. Ask neighbors, letter carriers, and delivery people if they have seen your pet. Have a recent photograph of your pet available along with information on how you can be reached if your pet is found.

Advertise. Post signs at grocery stores, community centers, veterinary offices, traffic intersections, and other locations. Also, place advertisements in newspapers and with radio stations. Include your pet’s sex, age, weight, breed, color, and any special markings. When describing your pet, leave out one identifying characteristic and ask the person who finds your pet to describe it.

Be wary of pet-recovery scams. If someone calls to claim they have found your pet, ask them to describe the pet thoroughly before you offer any information. If they do not include the identifying characteristic you left out of the advertisements, they may not really have your pet. Be particularly cautious if people insist that you give or wire them money for the return of your pet.

Don’t give up your search. Animals who have been lost for months have been reunited with their owners.

A pet – even an indoor pet – has a better chance of being returned if he/she always wears a collar and an ID tag with your pet’s name, your name, address, and telephone number. Permanent methods of identification (such as microchips or tattooing) are available also.