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STEP BY STEP HOW TO FIND YOUR LOST PET

BE BACK SHORTLY

Lost and Found:

Tips for Recovering a Lost Pet

If your pet disappears, stay calm, form a plan of action, and recruit as many people as you can to help with the search. Dogs will wander farther than cats, so if you’re searching for a dog, immediately organize a team to comb the neighborhood and drive the surrounding area, posting signs and asking people along the way if they’ve seen a pooch on the run. Your recruits also should call all animal control agencies, shelters, and rescue groups within a 60-mile radius.

If you’re looking for a cat, focus your initial search on a five- to seven-house radius, where indoor cats who bolt are likely to remain, says pet detective Kat Albrecht. Ask neighbors if you can check their yards, the spaces under their homes, and outbuildings. Inspect nooks and crannieswhere a disoriented cat could hole up, and bring a tasty treat as an enticement.

If your cat is too scared to come out, set baited humane traps with voice-activated baby monitors (to alert you when an animal is caught) in the areas you suspect she’s hiding. In some cases, an amplified listening device or “plumber’s camera” can help locate cats trapped or hiding under buildings. Remember that it can take a few days for cats to build up enough courage—or become hungry enough—to come out of hiding.

If you’ve followed these initial steps and are still coming up empty, it’s time to take your search to the next level:

Spread the word

Make lost pet signs that are big, bright, and brief. On fluorescent poster board, write “Reward” in huge letters at the top and “Lost Dog” (or cat) at the bottom. In the middle, tape a flier with a photo of your pet between two or three words of description. Post the signs in highly trafficked areas, and take the flier to every animal shelter and veterinary clinic in the area.

Place ads in newspapers and announcements on radio stations. Check online at sites such as the Center for Lost Pets (http://www.thecenterforlostpets.com/), Fido Finder (fidofinder.com), and Craig’s List (craigslist.org). Consider using a lost pet alert service like findtoto.org to contact homes in your area.

Hire some help

If you can afford to hire a pet detective, start looking for one quickly, since scent trails weaken over time. When hiring a detective, ask for references and steer clear of anyone who guarantees success. Also beware of pet-recovery scam artists, such as someone who claims to have found your pet and asks for money before returning the animal.

Be persistent 

Visit animal shelters daily if possible; don’t rely on staff to notify you if your pet is brought in. Keep in mind that many shelters have limited space and may adopt out or euthanize animals after a holding period—usually anywhere from three to seven days. Be sure to also ask shelter staff if your pet could have been placed in a foster home or transferred to a rescue group or if there are other shelters you should be checking.

Most of all, don’t lose hope—many reunions occur after months of separation.

More on pet recovery

For more details on pet recovery strategies, visit missingpetpartnership.org.

Safe, Not Sorry

Cats and dogs can easily slip through open doors, bolt in a panic, claw through window screens, and go over and under fences. That’s why it’s critical that you take these steps to safeguard your companions:

Always have a collar and ID tag on your pet with your current phone number and address. Pet detective Landa Coldiron recommends that if your animal is shy or skittish, include on the tag, “I’m shy, not abused.” Her dogs’ collars also feature the word “Reward” in English and Spanish. “I don’t want there to be any doubt that my dogs have a loving owner who wants them back,” Coldiron says.

Have your pet microchipped, and make sure you register the chip and keep your contact information up to date. (But never rely on the chip as a sole form of ID; your pet may not be lucky enough to end up at a facility with a scanner that can read it.)

Keep recent photos and a detailed description of your pet on hand.

This information above came from the source here which is where I got started on my journey to find my cat which I found.

CLICK HERE

Recovery Tips

At Missing Pet Partnership, rather than telling you what YOU NEED TO DO to find your lost pet, we’d rather see lost pet services available in your community! Expecting grieving, brokenhearted people (who are not trained or equipped for the task) to search for their own missing pet does not make sense! However, the concept of lost pet services is still in the early stages of development. Since pet detectives might not be available in your area, we offer these unique lost pet behavior recovery tips.

What makes our lost pet recovery tips unique? Two facts: they are species specific and they are behavior specific.

By “species specific” we mean that the methods, techniques, and resources that you should use to search for a lost cat are very different from those you should use to search for a lost dog or a lost ferret. Cats, dogs, and ferrets are very different animals. They behave differently, they are responded to differently when people see them, and they travel different distances when lost. One of the biggest mistakes made with other pet sites that offer “lost pet tips” is providing canned suggestions that might not be the most effective method to recover a lost pet. For example, most shelters and animal websites tell you that if your cat is missing you should do three primary things: place an Ad in the newspaper, check the local shelter cages, and post flyers in your area. But if your cat is a skittish, indoor-only cat who escaped outdoors then these three methods are NOT going to increase your chances of recovering your lost cat!

 

By “behavior specific” we mean that the individual behavior and temperament of a cat, dog, ferret, or other species will influence how that particular animal will respond to human contact as well as the distance he/she will travel when lost. The roots of our knowledge in lost pet behavior stem from our knowledge of studies conducted into the behavioral patterns of missing people. There is a science to finding lost people and a lot of that knowledge can be applied to finding lost pets. Professionally trained searchers don’t wander aimlessly in the woods when searching for a missing hiker. Instead, an organized search plan is implemented based on the knowledge of the behavioral patterns of lost people.

Each recovery tip page on our website contains unique and useful information that can help you if you’ve lost a pet, found an animal, or if you want to protect your animal family.

Within each of the pages are links to lost pet services and websites with further information that can help you recover your animal family member. Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll find:

Lost Cat Behavior: The temperament of a cat influences how far he/she will travel when lost.

Displaced Cat Behavior: When an indoor-only cat escapes outdoors, utilize a baited humane trap as a recovery tool.

Lost Dog Behavior: The temperament, circumstances, and appearance of a dog will influence how far he/she travels when lost.

Other Species: Various species behave differently when lost.

Posters 5+5+55: Probably the most effective method for recovering lost dogs and some lost cats!

Found Stray: We have GREAT tips that will help you reunite a loose (stray) dog with his/her family! We wish all rescuers who find dogs would follow this advice!

Prevention: Here are some things you can do to protect your animal family.

Think Lost, Not Stray: Revolutionary yet convincing concept. By shifting our point of view we can reduce the overcrowding of shelters and reunite found dogs and cats with their families!

This information above came from the source here which is where I got started on my journey to find my cat which I found.

CLICK HERE

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Send Photo & Location by Email. We will post it here and we will immediately notify as many resources as we can reach out to in hopes to reconnect the lost pet with owner. Please email:

lanea@petshideandseek.com

OR

Send Photo & Location by Email. We will post it here and we will immediately notify as many resources as we can reach out to in hopes to reconnect the lost pet with owner. Please email:

lanea@petshideandseek.com

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