Looking for lost pets...

Although finding a lost animal often seems to depend on luck, it is luck you can help make. There are no guarantees, but there are things people who find their pets do that make a difference.

1) Knock on doors and talk to people in your local area.

Most people walk the streets around their home and calling their pet by name. People who knock on their neighbour's doors and ask if anyone has seen their pet instead of just calling are more likely to find it.

2) Hand out fliers with your pet's picture on them and your telephone number.

Fliers need only have a clear photo of the animal and a telephone number that someone will answer or that is hooked to an answering machine.

3) Go to all the local animal shelters such as the N.C.D.L. - R.S.P.C.A. – Blue Cross and don’t forget the sanctuaries, rescue charity’s , council pounds and the Dog Warden charged with picking up stray and lost animals and look for yourself, at least every other day.

Telephoning the various animal shelters and sanctuaries on the phone is not very effective. Your pet may not yet be listed in the records at the front desk, and the way you describe your pet may not be the way a shelter describes your pet. Any animal may become dirty, matted and neglected looking very quickly, and you must visit the shelter, even if your pet was wearing a tag when it was lost.

You will need to go to the shelters at least every other day. Few shelters can keep animals for more than a week or so. Sometimes it takes more than a few days for a pet to be picked up and brought to a shelter.

It's important to visit all the shelters within 20 miles of where your pet was lost. It could be the case that your pet has been lost in, lets say South Glamorgan, but may have strayed in to the next county, lets say, Gwent for instance. Therefore searching just in your immediate area will not always be good enough. If someone took your pet in for a few days hoping you would knock on their door and ask about it, they might later drop your pet off at the shelter that's most convenient for them, rather the one that's closest.

Combining these three things is most effective. Knocking on doors and handing out copies of your flier to your neighbours and to the staff at all the local shelters is the most effective way of looking for your lost pet.

Again, calling is seldom successful, and actually visiting the shelters & sanctuaries is the best way. You should check back once a week.

4) Put an ad in the local paper, and in the papers in surrounding areas.

Some people only look in the newspaper to locate an animal's owner. Advertising in the paper can also be important to establish you were actively looking for your pet in case someone were to claim that you meant to give it up or didn't want it.

Check in the local papers for any 'lost and found' ads and place one of your own if you can.

Ask businesses that people who live in the area are likely to use to put up a copy of your flier. This includes petrol stations, fast food restaurants, public houses and convenience and grocery stores. Ask if you can put a copy of your flier up in the pet food aisle. If someone picks up your animal and holds it for a few days hoping you will find them just as your pet did, they will need food.
Also, ask your postman and milkman to look out for your pet.

Contact local rescue organizations and give them copies of your flier. People who are afraid animals will be destroyed if they turn them over to the shelter might contact a rescue/sanctuary, and rescue/sanctuary people often go through local shelters looking for animals they can help place in new homes. Ask the shelters if they know of anyone doing rescue in the area, even if they don't work with them.

Give copies of your flier to vets and pet stores and ask them to put them up.
Give copies of your flier to people that walk their dogs in the area. They're more likely to spot animals than most people. If you go to the parks early, you may find people who regularly walk their dogs together as an informal group. Dogs on leash notice and want to investigate all kinds of things.

Go and check out any possibilities even if the description is not quite right - two descriptions of the same animal rarely match.

The most important tip of all: Don't give up hope - your pet won't. The fact that you don't find your pet right away doesn't mean you never will - keep trying. Lost pets have been found, or returned home on their own, days, weeks or even months later.