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LOST YOUR
COMPANION?
When your beloved dog or cat strays from home, it can be a traumatic
experience for both of you. Here are some tips that we hope will
help you find your 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.
To find your local shelter go to pets 911 or check your
phone book. If there is no shelter in your community, contact
the local police department and/or animal control. 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. Also, place advertisements in newspapers
and with radio stations. 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. Animals who have been lost for months have been
reunited with their owners.
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.
Ask your local animal shelter or veterinarian if permanent methods
of identification (such as microchips) are available in your area.
Links: http://www.flealess.org/lostpets/iowa.html |
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