WHAT TO DO IF YOUR PET IS LOST Report A Lost Pet >> Advice For Finding A Lost Cat >> The Claiming Process >> When your beloved pet strays from home, it can be a traumatic experience for both of you. Here are some suggestions for helping you find your lost pet: Contact local animal shelters and animal control agencies. File a lost pet report with every shelter within a 60-mile radius of your home and visit the nearest shelters daily, if possible. If there is no shelter in your community, contact the local police department’s non-emergency number. Provide these agencies with an accurate description and a recent photograph of your pet. Notify the police if you believe your pet was stolen.

• Search the neighborhood. Walk or drive through your neighborhood several times each day. Ask neighbors, letter carriers, and delivery people if they have seen your pet. Hand out a recent photograph of your pet and information on how you can be reached if your pet is found.

• Advertise. Post notices at grocery stores, community centers, veterinary offices, traffic intersections, online at www.pets911.com, and other locations. You may wish to place advertisements in newspapers such as the many available through Gannett Companies under the category “Announcements” and “Lost and Found”: . Include your pet's sex, age, weight, breed, color, and any special markings. When describing your pet, leave out one identifying characteristic and ask the person who finds your pet to describe it.

• Be wary of pet-recovery scams. When talking to a stranger who claims to have found your pet, ask him to describe the pet thoroughly before you offer any information. If he does not include the identifying characteristic you left out of the advertisements, he may not really have your pet. Be particularly wary of people who insist that you give or wire them money for the return of your pet.

• Don't give up your search. Pets who have been lost for months have been reunited with their owners.

All pets that come to Bay Area Humane Society as “stray” are cared for at the shelter for a minimum of 8 days in hopes that their family will find them here. Because we don’t know a stray pet’s history, and we strive to ensure the safety and health of all animals in our care, vaccinations, deworming and other parasitic treatments are given, and of course any injuries tended to. See the pet claiming process >>> for more details. If nobody has claimed the pet after 8 days has passed, the pet is evaluated and can be adopted to a new family.

We cannot stress this enough … a pet—even an indoor pet—has a better chance of being returned if she always wears a collar and an ID tag with your name, address, and telephone number. Even if your pet has an implanted microchip, your pet can be returned more quickly to you by a neighbor with just a simple tag. Also, someone who finds a particularly cute and friendly pet might be tempted to convince themselves the animal was abandoned and keep her if they don’t see a tag showing she already belongs to a loving family.

The next line of defense is an implanted microchip. Even if a collar and ID tag falls off or is removed, most animal control persons and shelters can scan for a microchip. Ask your veterinarian or contact Bay Area Humane Society about having your pet(s) microchipped.