If Your Pet Is Lost Or Missing

Some advice to faciliate the recovery of your cat.

As soon as you realize your cat is missing, write and make copies of a detailed description of your pet, and a photo if available. Be sure to include at least one phone number, such as cellular or home or work, as well as the vicinity in which your pet disappeared (i.e. corner of A and B streets or Ace housing development area). If there are tags, a collar, ID microchip, bandage or other identifying feature, say so. Some organizations suggest adding a reward*, or saying your cat needs medication (whether he does or not) to persuade people to help find and return your pet.

Call all local animal shelters with a detailed description and your phone numbers, or better yet, bring a photograph and description. Some shelters provide a missing pet form to fill out and attach a photo that are then posted at the facility. Bring the poster/description to all local veterinarian offices in your area.

If there are schools nearby, call them and leave posters there, too. Both cats and dogs will sometimes seek out children and outdoor cafeteria food. If there is a nearby park, look for your pet there and ask people walking their dogs, whether they saw your pet. Call your neighbors, too.

Obviously, you will already have walked as much of the area around your home as possible. Try any area you may have taken your pet to in the past (parks, playgrounds, etc.) If you feel comfortable with this, you can also post lost pet notices with photo in supermarkets, and on crossroad posts within 5 miles of your home.

Reward Fraud

* A note of caution regarding rewards: In several states, there have been unscrupulous people who take advantage of frantic pet owners. A family may get a call from an alleged motorist or truck driver who says he picked up "Sparky" and is now in another state. This person wants you to send him (or her) $200 to pay to have "Sparky" shipped back to you. A. He may not even have Sparky. B. Even if he does have Sparky, he is probably within a few miles of your home.

A way to handle this situation is: Ask for his phone number saying you have another call (or the food is burning, or your boss just walked into your cubicle) and that you will call him right back. If the call is legitimate, you can find a veterinarian in the caller's area and arrange to have your pet boarded. You can then either pick up your pet from the vet or have the vet's office make shipping arrangements.

If this is a genuine Good Samaritan, you can if you choose, send him a "thank you" check by mail. If not, you have saved yourself some emotional agony, disappointment and financial loss. You should also report this event to the police, as it is attempted fraud. You are probably not the first person this has happened to in your area.

Happy Endings

We wish you good luck! Two stories that ended happily for dogs and their families: My husband was driving along a busy country road and found a tiny poodle zig-zagging across the road. He stopped, caught the dog and brought her home. The dog's collar had tags with a vet's phone number and an identification number. We called the vet, gave the dog's identity number on the tags and described the dog to the assistant, as well as our phone number and address. They looked up the owner on their computer using the dog's ID number and called the owners. We were called back by the vet's assistant who said the owners worked and we would get a call after 5 PM. At 5:15 PM the father called and said he would bring his son, also. Just to double check, David asked him to describe the dog. Twenty minutes later, there was a very happy reunion. This reunion happened because of 3 things: the current ID tags, the due diligence on our part and that of the vet's office, and that the normally busy road was quiet.

Another story: On impulse we went to the library at night (we never go at that time). A woman and her teenaged daughter were outside the library with a medium-large sized dog. They were asking everyone if they knew the dog or his family. They found him wandering at a nearby school and had walked the neighborhood with him trying to find his family. His ID tags were from another state, and the phone number listed on them was no longer in service. She was going to have to take the dog to animal control as she did not have a good place to keep him and could not take off time from work to find his family. I am, unfortunately, allergic to dogs. The dog, slowly wagging his tail, came up to me and sat down beside me. He treated our 10 year old son nicely. He was a quiet dog, older and tired by the way he walked.

On another impulse, I said I would take him home to our large fenced yard, and take off from my part-time job to find his family. They were very thankful. I called home to warn my very surprised husband and older son. They thought I was joking when I said I was bringing a lost dog home. Ha! They checked all the gates on our yard, got out old big blankets, cushions, and dishes with water and food. Without a lead, he walked into our yard and lay down on the cushions and blanket. Our indoor-only cats examined the visitor carefully through the glass doors. There were no hysterics or teasing, just cautious curiosity.

I tried the animal control phone and web site for the county that was on his ID tags. The family had obviously moved, but had not updated the tags. The next morning I called the school where he was found, animal control to if there were any missing dogs that looked like this one, and our vet. I wanted our vet to look at a dirty bandaged area on the dog's leg. By the time I got there with the dog, the mystery had been solved. Our vet's neighbor, who was the dog's owner, had given her a missing dog notice with a color photo of the dog! The vet's assistant called the owner's cell phone and she was able to get off work for an hour. They had been frantic over the missing dog, who was 12 years old and recovering from cancer surgery. A very happy reunion about 25 minutes later. I asked her to please get him new updated tags ASAP!

How did this happen? This dog, and two others lived in a fenced area. Someone had opened the fence -- only an adult human could have reached and operated the latch. When she came home from work, she found the gate open and only the two younger dogs inside. A frantic search of the neighborhood ensued. So she made up the notices and gave them out around 6 AM the next morning. Now the gate has a padlock and the dog has new tags. By the way, this elderly dog walked over 4 miles from his home to where his human played soccer at the school, presumably hoping to find her there. Keep those ID tags current!