IF YOUR PET IS LOST, YOU NEED TO MOVE QUICKLY

• Check your neighborhood!
  • Walk around and call your pet. Carry some food with you as a lure.
  • Carry copies of a photo and an accurate description to hand out to everyone you meet including letter carriers, meter readers, and the paper boy.
  • Offer a reward as motivation.
  • Drive the neighborhood. Lost pets will likely hide during the day. Early morning and evening are the best times to locate your pet.
  • Leave items with a familiar scent outside your home to help attract a pet who has become disoriented.
• Check area animal shelters!
  • File a lost pet report with every shelter within a 60-mile radius. Provide them with a photo and an accurate description.
  • Check in with them at least once every two days.
  • Contact the local police department if there is no shelter in your area.
  • File a police report if you think your pet may have been stolen.
• Advertise, advertise, advertise!
  • Put up posters in the neighborhood. Place them in shopping centers, pet supply stores, veterinary offices, grooming parlors, on telephone poles, at churches, and anywhere else you can think of.
  • Place ads in the local newspaper.
  • Read the "found" ads and respond to those that may be your pet.
  • Check with local radio and cable stations to see which might offer lost and found services.
  • Use the power of the Internet. A good place to start in the Metro Detroit area is at Petznjam, a searchable database of both lost and found pets.
• Don't give up!
  • Some animals have been found months after being lost.

IF YOU'VE FOUND A STRAY DOG OR CAT

• Check carefully for a collar and tag. A shabby, thin animal with no collar probably has no owner. An animal with a collar should not be running loose.
• If possible, call the owners to tell them you have found their pet.
• Consider fostering the animal temporarily while you use different means to locate the owner.
• Try contacting your local rescue groups for help or take the animal to your local shelter. They will care for the animal while attempting to locate the owner or, failing that, try to place the stray into a new home.
• If you can't bring the stray to your shelter, confine him in your garage or on your porch until shelter personnel arrive to pick him up.

YOU CAN AVOID THE TRAUMA OF LOST PETS

• Keep your pets indoors.
• Your pet should ALWAYS wear a collar.
• Make sure your pets are identified with current ID tags. Have your pets licensed every year and make sure the tag is attached to the pet collar.
• Keep a recent photo of your pets and written descriptions that include age, height, weight, size, color, and markings. Provide this information to pet sitters.
• Microchip your pets. Most shelters can and will scan for microchips.
• Tattoo your pets.