Death isn’t the only way to lose a pet.  Pets can slip the leash, dash off in fear of thunder or fireworks, sneak out when you’ve “put them up” during heat, or go missing for any number of other reasons. 

To keep your pet from going missing

• Secure your home. Fence your yard and check it for escape routes like loose boards, gates that don’t latch firmly, or places your dog has tried to dig its way out or another animal has tried to dig its way in. Take care when opening doors and leaving windows open.
• Spay / neuter your pet because “fixed” pets are less likely to roam.
• Use a leash when your dog is not in your fenced yard and under your control.
• When you take your inside pet outside, use a carrier rather than your arms.

Precautions to take before your pet goes missing

• A pet with current identification is your best chance of having your pet returned to you, so have your pet carry ID – a microchip or a collar with its rabies tag and current contact info. When your pet is found and someone takes it to a veterinarian, humane society, or animal control, their personnel will scan it for a chip and can contact the chip company to get your contact information. When you move, update the information.
• Use a GPS microchip or GPS dog collar through which you can use your smartphone to locate your pet. For example, pawscout.com offers a customizable Bluetooth-enabled ID that connects to a smartphone app for tracking and alerting the community if your pet goes AWOL.
• Consider a facial recognition app like Finding Rover.  Through facial recognition technology and geographic filtering, Finding Rover identifies likely matches in its database, which includes intake photos from more than 6,000 shelters and rescues.
• Take two clear photographs – of the front of your pet’s face and a side view showing color, markings, and relative size. If you keep the photos on your cell phone, you can show people your pet as you search.

What to do when your pet goes missing

Your pet may have gone missing because it was curious, bored, frightened, lonely, or responded to the scent of a female in heat, among other reasons.  It will likely seek company, comfort and food. Where would it find those things? 

• Start your search immediately, beginning with all the places in your house and garage your pet might be. Statistics show that dog owners start looking immediately and cat owners wait several days or more, working on the theory “he has gone missing before and he always comes home.” 
• Try to figure out when your pet went missing (a dog missing for 20 minutes hasn’t had the time to go as far as one missing all day) and how it got out (a cat that went out an open window may be more likely to be sleeping in the sun than one that chewed its way out through a screen in fear or frustration). Dogs found in the first day or two tend to be within a mile or two of home, but they can roam 5 – 10 miles a day, so broaden the search as time passes.
• Notify county animal control immediately because they usually hold a stray for a limited time (as little as 72 hours) before putting it up for adoption or possibly putting it down. The delay cat owners too often make in reporting the cat missing may mean it is euthanized even before animal control is notified it is missing.
• Petfinder suggests you draw a circle on a map around the spot your pet disappeared. The radius of your circle depends on how long your pet has been missing and how big it is (a large dog will likely travel further than a small one merely because it has longer legs). Half a mile? A mile? It’s up to you.  Within that radius, where might it find comfort, food and company?  Start there and get the people in that circle looking for your pet.
• Leave someone behind if you set out on foot or in the car – in case your pet comes home.
• Take a leash or carrier with you.

Get the word out

• Get the word out to your neighbors if your pet disappeared from home. It could be as simple as your pet being caught in a neighbor’s garage or sleeping on your neighbor’s porch.
• Tell everyone who regularly travels your neighborhood – the FedEx driver, the postal delivery person, folks who walk their dog. Most people own a pet now or have owned one at one time, so there will be a lot of people who will respond favorably to helping you find your pet.
• Post the pertinent facts on any available websites that may be operated by newspapers (especially local ones), radio stations, swap sites, etc. If your local radio station has a “pet patrol” segment, notify them.
• Use social media to cast a wide net.
• Post your pet on website databases that have the express purpose of reuniting pets and their owners. Some are free, others have fees. Petco Love Lost is a national database that uses pet facial recognition technology to search thousands of found-pet listings from users and shelters across the country. Simply upload a photo of your pet to start the search. Others not evaluated for IS IT TIME?  include: Mission Reunite – Bringing missing pets and their people back together,  Missing Animal Response Network, The Center for Lost Pets, Lost Dogs of America, Pet FBI, Lost Dogs – Lost Dog Database – Fido Finder,  BeKind PetFind, Welcome to Pet-Detective.com. NextDoor isn’t specifically for finding a lost pet but you can post your information there if you join the site (free).
• Create a poster or flier with a photo, description (breed, size, unique characteristics, description of its collar), date and location your pet was last seen, and your contact information. Free poster templates are available here, here, and here, among others. Hold back a detail.  You can ask a person who claims to have found your pet about that detail they could only know if they have seen your pet.  
• Distribute the poster widely – local businesses, local veterinarians, humane societies / animal rescue organizations, animal control and neighbors. (Be aware that no one is allowed to put anything in a US mailbox other than US mail, so no fliers in mailboxes. In some locales, fliers on phone poles or similar are not allowed and will be removed.)
• Spend time outside. Putter in the garden, have lunch on the patio – wherever your voice, scent, or sight may reach your pet.
• Check the “found pets” listings for local radio stations, newspapers, swap sites, etc.
• Personally visit the locations to which people take dogs and cats they have found – animal control, humane society, other pet rescues – because the personnel at these organizations:

1. 1. May not have seen your message about your pet,
   2. May not be experienced enough to tell breeds apart, like your Alaskan Malamute from a Siberian Huskie,
   3. May not know your Golden Retriever from someone else’s Golden Retriever,
   4. May not realize the description of the animal in front of them matches your pet’s description, or
   5. Your pet may be dirty, matted, and thinner than the animal you described as lost.

Particularly for cats

• The sights and sounds of outdoors tend to overwhelm an indoor cat and they often “go to ground” quickly, which means they stay close to home and will be able to hear your voice.
• If you see it escape, go after it calling in the way you would indoors (so the change in tone or volume is inviting rather than frightening). Go after it at a pace that won’t frighten it further (so no running).
• If you come home and can’t find the cat, do those little things that usually attract it, like using the can opener or shaking the treat container. If the cat doesn’t appear, check its favorite hiding spots and anywhere else it might have hidden if frightened or ill – under furniture, in the back of closets or cabinets, even in the under-lining of upholstered furniture and box springs.
• Outdoors, check close to home first – under shrubs or porches, up in trees, behind the wood pile.
• Put out a box the cat can crawl under or hop into.
• To help the cat know it has found home, put something outside that has your scent or the cat’s scent — its litter box, your sweaty T-shirt or sneakers, its bed,….
• In the quiet hours of very early morning, go outside and call your pet, shake a box of treats, or pop the top on a can of food. Sound carries during this quiet time so your actions may produce different results from the same calls during the bustle of the day, what with the noises of traffic, truck backfires, lawn mowers and the like.
• If you can do so without attracting unwelcome wildlife, put out a bowl of food and water around which you sprinkle a layer of flour heavy enough that you will be able to see the tracks of whatever visits the bowls. If you identify cat tracks in the flour, you know that at least someone’s cat is visiting the bowls. The location for this activity could be the garage with the door blocked from closing completely or some other area that is protected from precipitation (which will obliterate any tracks and leave a doughy mess).

Sad to say, but be aware of potential problems

• Ask the person who claims to have found your pet to send you a photo before you offer any information beyond what you put on a poster or flier.
• Keep one detail to yourself – the white spot on its belly, the nick in its right ear — so you can tell if someone has really found your pet and isn’t scamming you.
• Don’t go alone to meet someone who supposedly has your pet.
• Be wary of anyone who wants a finder’s fee, and don’t pay it until you have your pet back.

It is easy to lose hope, but there are countless stories of animals that return home after lengthy absences. If your pet doesn’t return home, there is always the possibility that your cherished pet has found a home with some other family that will cherish it just as you have.