How to Find a Lost Pet

Don’t give up if your pet disappears, but the longer it is missing, the more unlikely you are to recover it. That’s why it’s so important to immediately use every possible avenue to help in your search.

If you own a pet there is always the chance that through a moment of inattention or carelessness, that pet may disappear. Hopefully, your pet’s absence will be temporary and he will find his way home or be found and returned home by a family member or neighbor.
Unfortunately, thousands of lost animals are never recovered. To avoid having your pet become a part of those thousands, here are some steps you can take to improve the chances of finding a lost pet, should the need ever arise in your household.

1. Like Boy Scouts, be prepared.

If at all possible, do have a microchip implanted in your pet, and alert the local animal shelter as soon as your animal disappears. Then, even if your pet does not have a microchip implant, make a personal visit to the shelter to fill out a missing animal report and give them extra information that will help in the identification of your animal.

2. Have pictures of your pet on hand.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words so be sure you have something more than just words to describe your animal if it should become necessary

3. Talk to your neighbors.

Check out people for quite a distance around your house to see if anyone has seen your pet. Show them some pictures. If your pet has been an indoor pet, your neighbors might not even recognize a new animal appearing at their back door as belonging to you.

4. Post lots of “Lost Pet” signs.

Scatter your signs for several blocks around the area where you think your pet disappeared. The sooner you post t hem, the more likely you are to get a response. Your signs should be large enough to be read by people in cars passing by, and have helpful information on them, like a picture of your pet along with its color, age, weight, and other identifying features.
Be sure to mention whether or not it has been neutered, and any unusual habits it may have. (One person we know had a cat that liked to sit in trees, and this was the comment on the poster that caused a lady to connect a cat she saw in a tree with the missing cat mentioned on the poster.) If your pet likes a particular food, list it, just in case the person who finds it wants to try a bit of luring.

Write your phone number in huge letters. If the weather is bad, slip the poster into a clear plastic bag so that it won’t get soggy and droop after an hour or two in the rain.

5. Offer a worthwhile reward.

People will be more likely to go out of their way to keep an eye peeled for your pet if there is a reward offered. Groups of neighborhood kids may even band together and look for your pet in hopes of earning the reward.

6. Enlist help from unexpected places.

Let the mail man and paper boy know about your loss. These people are in your neighborhood every day, and cover a lot of area. Give them a card with your phone number so they can reach you if they do spot your pet.

7. Place ads in the local newspaper and on supermarket bulletin boards.

The first thing most people who find a lost pet do is check the ads in the local newspaper to see if anyone has reported a lost pet, so get your ad in as soon as possible. Include the same information and reward offer that you included on your lost pet signs. Some supermarkets also have bulletin boards where you can post lost pet notices. Those within a mile or so of your home would be most useful.

8. Try luring your pet to come home on his own.

Set a bowl of water and your pet’s favorite food just outside a patio door. A cat or dog carrier left with the door open may give them a sense of a safe place to spend the night. A favorite toy or two near the food may also help. If there is evidence that your pet is in the area, or it has actually been sighted, consider renting a humane animal trap. Leave the trap unset and move your pet’s food bowl closer and closer for several days to get your pet comfortable with entering the trap before you actually set it. You may trap the neighbor’s cat instead, but that’s okay. Try again the next night.

Hopefully, one or another of these ideas for recovering your lost pet will work for you. Even if they don’t, don’t give up home too quickly. We had a pet cat disappear, without a trace, in the early part of December last year. After trying everything we knew how to try, we were adjusting to the idea that we would never see our pet again. One day about two months later, we heard a scratching noise on our bedroom window screen, and there was our cat.

He seemed a little thinner, but otherwise, healthy, so please don’t give up too soon. You never know when your wandering cat—or dog may decide that he or she has had enough of the wild life and decide to return to where a bowl of food and water is always on tap.