Here's a resource guide whether you lost your pet, found a pet, or want to protect your pets in the future.

• What to do if your pet is missing.
• What to do if you find a pet.
• Steps to protect your pet from being lost.

What To Do If Your Pet Is Missing

Despite our best efforts to make things safe for our pets all the time, sometimes accidents happen. Your roommate might have carelessly left a window open that the cat discovered, or the hole in the fence you thought you fixed might have given way in the face of an eager dog’s attentions towards it. Whatever the situation, the important thing is to find your pet again—and when your pet is back, realizing what circumstances allowed them to escape and then making any changes necessary to prevent it from happening again.

1. The first thing for you to do is to contact your local Animal Control agency immediately to report your missing dog or cat. All stray animals picked up within a city’s limits go to that city’s shelter where they are held for about a week (this varies by community) just in case an owner like you is looking for them. It will be helpful if you can come in person and look at all the strays picked up recently at that agency and continue to check back regularly. If you live near a border between cities, then you should report your lost pet to both cities’ animal controls to increase the odds of finding him. While a large dog might be able to stray farther, most cats and smaller dogs tend to stay close to home. Pets are often found within the same city where they were lost.
2. When you make the actual "lost report" at the Animal Control, the more specific you can be when you describe your missing dog or cat the better. Give lots of detail. Include their gender, if they’re spayed or neutered, their age, where the animal was last seen (i.e., your address, if you last saw him in your home), if the animal was wearing a collar and/or ID and any identifying characteristics, like scars or unusual markings. Photos are vital, too— despite all the details you give, one person’s "Siamese Mix" might be easily described as someone else’s "Lynx Point" or "Snowshoe," and identifying different dog breeds can also be subjective. Photos are a great way to show an animal’s appearance since we might all apply different adjectives to the same cat or dog!
3. Make flyers with the all-important photographs of your missing pet and post them in your neighborhood. If a neighbor catches a glimpse of your missing pet, or if someone has found him and taken him in, then they will know whom to call about the animal.

What To Do If You Find A Pet

1. Take the animal to your local animal control immediately, or if you’re in a position to care for an animal for awhile, then you can do a Found Report with your local animal control. That way, when the owner looks for Fluffy or Fido at Animal Control, there will be a record of their pet there. The shelter will most likely handle the return of the animal to the owner for you and will call you to let you know that they’ve made an owner match and need the animal returned to them so they can return him (or "redeem" him) to his owner. Even if you would really love to keep the dog or cat as your own, you must do the responsible thing and report the animal to give his owner the chance to find him. Imagine if you were the one frantically looking for your lost pet.
2. If you have any concerns about abuse or neglect based on the condition that animal was in when you found him, please do discuss these with Animal Control, but please don’t use these concerns as grounds for not reporting that you found the animal. Animal Control is affiliated with the local police department and they handle complaints of animal abuse or neglect. If the animal is in questionable condition and is claimed by an owner, then they can take up the issue with the owner and it would be appropriate for them to do so.
3. Make flyers with a photo of the animal, date and location found and a phone number where you can be reached so that their owner can call you. You should have a few identifying characteristics picked out that an owner should be able to give you, like black and white whiskers, freckles on their nose, a white star on his chest, etc.

Steps To Protect Your Pet Against Being Lost

We, at the EBSPCA, hope you will never have to consult this page! Here are some measures pet owners can take to try to minimize the risk of ever losing a pet.

1. Microchip your dog or cat. A microchip is the size of a grain of rice and it is implanted under the animal’s skin between his shoulder blades. When the animal is scanned, this chip is read—the scanner will display a sequence of letters and numbers that is unique to that animal and is registered to you. It’s important to have your contact info up to date at all times, otherwise the chip isn’t very effective it it’s registered to your old address and phone number. All animal shelter and vet clinics can scan for microchips (animal control agencies that pick up strays scan each animal upon intake. To answer some frequently asked questions:
   • No, it doesn’t hurt them.
   • No, they don’t emit audible sound waves, set off metal detectors, or pick up satellite TV! (Even if these questions did not occur to you, they have all been asked before!)
   • No, you can’t feel the chip and neither can they. Not bad for a device that can save your dog or cat’s life!
2. Have a collar with an ID tag on your pet at all times with your current phone number on it. Cats and some dogs are, unfortunately, masters at wriggling out of collars when they don’t want to keep them on, so microchipping is an important second way to identify your pet.
3. Have tags on your dog and a current license. The tag is proof of rabies vaccination for adult dogs and often has the name of the vet clinic that performed the shot, the clinic’s phone number and an ID number for the dog. Someone who found the dog could then contact your vet clinic to let you know they’ve found your dog. The dog license is a form of doggy ID given by the city where your dog lives. IF someone found your dog and contacted your city shelter and/or police department, then by giving them the license info (an ID number assigned to your dog), this is another way that your dog can be traced back to you.
4. Keep cats indoors only. It’s much safer for them. If confined to the great indoors, they can’t fight with other cats, be exposed to illness from other cats, be harmed by wildlife, hit by cars, or be stolen. Cats are not wild animals who need to be outside. They’re pretty domestic and the quality of their indoor-only life is what you make it. They’ll love the indoors if you give them lots of play time, a nice scratching post, a fun window perch and interactive toys—like food dispensing balls they can bat around!