Pawprints and Purrs, Inc.
All Critters
Finding Your Lost Pet
A Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Organization
All donations are tax deductible
Copyright © 1997 - 2010
The immediate keys to searching for your pet are: walk, talk, visit and make fliers. As soon as you're aware your pet is missing, walk the area he/she was last seen. Don't go alone. Knock on doors, talk with people in the area, homes and businesses. Visit all local shelters DAILY. Make Fliers.
- Be aggressive in your search.
- Time is your enemy.
- Never give up.
The search tips below are written assuming your pet disappeared from your home. If lost while on a trip, the same applies for the area where your pet was last seen.
- Check inside your home in every conceivable corner and space, and outside your home in outbuildings, crawlspaces, anywhere your pet may be hiding. Your pet could be hurt, sick, confused, scared or trapped.
- Walk your grounds calling pet's name often and loudly. LISTEN CLOSELY.
- Walk your neighborhood, or area last seen, several times daily including early morning and early evening. (Take someone with you.) Call your pet's name. LISTEN CLOSELY.
- Leave items with a familiar scent outside your home. A litter box, pet bed, or a sweatshirt recently worn by a loved one can attract a pet who has strayed, become disoriented, or bolted during a thunderstorm.
- VISIT area shelters and humane societies DAILY. Take them your flier. Go in person; don't rely on a phone call to get correct, timely info.
Remember, some shelters and Humane Societies keep animals only a few days... Visit DAILY.
- Place an ad in the paper and also watch the paper closely for Found ads.
- Submit your ad online to lost/found, missing pet services, of which there are several. Online resources are listed below. Online Resources.
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Making Your Fliers:
- The success rate of distributing fliers encourages their use. Make them with your missing pet's picture, along with a written description and your contact information, including email address if you have one. WITHHOLD some identifying physical or behavioral characteristic of your pet. This will help determine if you are contacted by a scam artist claiming to have your pet.
Omit your last name and home address; just list the AREA. Offer a reward, but don't post the dollar amount.
- Hand out your flier to neighborhood children and adults. Especially contact those who routinely walk their pets ... they may have seen yours.
- Distribute fliers freely in the area to paper carriers, postal carriers, utility workers, gas station attendants, vets, schools, grocery stores, fast food stores, police/fire departments, shelters and humane societies.
- Post them on telephone poles (verify this is not prohibited in your area), neighborhood bulletin boards. Hand out at Wal-Mart, K-Mart and other shopping centers, community centers, meetings halls, anywhere well-trafficked and highly visible.
As a grieving pet owner, you need closure to your loss after a period of searching. Hopefully, yours will be the return of your pet: well and glad to be back home.
However, sad as this thought is, visit your local highway department and the animal facility affiliated with them and ask them to check their dead list. Your particular location may involve several departments that cover roads in your area: city/town, county and state roads departments, as well as the animal control agencies. Leave your flier with each department. Again, VISIT these departments at least weekly, as your are unlikely to get correct information by only calling.
Rewards and Pet Recovery Scams:
- Never part with money until your pet is in your hands.
- State that a reward is offered, but not the amount.
- Withhold some identifying information from your ad, whether you've placed it online, in your local paper, or on fliers.
Identifying info to withhold would be: tattoo number, scar, other outstanding physical or behavioral characteristics. This will help determine if the person trying to claim the reward actually has your animal ... or
is a scam artist.
- When you discuss your pet with strangers, ask many questions, and carefully answer questions submitted to you, giving NO info in regards to the identifying characteristics you have withheld. Get them to tell you about the pet they claim to have.
- Be EXTREMELY cautious and suspicious of anyone insisting that you wire them money before they can return your pet. Best Advice: Don't Do It.
- If the person claiming to have your pet offers to bring it to you, don't give them your home address unless you know them. If you make arrangements to meet, ALWAYS take at least one other person with you.
- Pick your 'meeting place' carefully, such as a public, high trafficked, high visibility area, preferably during the day.
 Click on tiny printer image to print text content only.
Your donation goes to the expenses for our feral cat colony and foster cats and dogs' food, upkeep, and medical care. 100% of all donations go to the animals because there are no salaries or administrative fees. Thank you for your support!
Visit our message board for serious information gathering and decimination regarding animal health, advocacy, and rescue - cats, dogs, wildlife, and so much more. You will have to register, but it's FREE. We hope you will join us.
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