Archive for the ‘Lost and Found Pets’ Category

I have experienced the heart ache of losing one of my beloved pets, and I’ve also felt the relief when a missing pet turns back up. I’ll start with my personal experience of losing a pet and not getting him back, and then tell you about my escape artist cat that disappeared, but is still with me. After that, I’ll list resources to help you find your lost pet or see who may be looking for that pet that you found.

Some kids from the neighborhood used to come and visit our dogs, and one day decided to open the fence, where my dogs and fosters promptly rushed them. We don’t leave our dogs outside unattended, so I heard the racket and looked out front to see 5 dogs, my dogs, running down the road toward the woods. I called to them, 4 came running back. I got them back in the fence, but when I went to find Samson, he was gone. We searched, taking two cars in opposite direction and didn’t see him. We went to the store, bought highlight yellow colored poster board and red permanent markers, and headed home to make signs, which we hung for miles and on every corner. We hired a “pet detective” who called all the houses in our general vicinity to see if they saw anything. We didn’t sleep, eat, and our performances at work were certainly not 100%. It was a terrible feeling. A week after Samson disappeared, animal control called us to let us know that he had been hit by a car. The man who hit him was terrified and picked Samson up and carried him to the closest home. They said that they had been seeing him for a week, but didn’t know him. Samson didn’t make it. We went and identified him- I had to be sure. This was less than a MILE from our home. All we did was search, and he never made an appearance. He was a friendly yellow lab mix. Why did these people, who I KNOW saw the signs everywhere, didn’t call us and tell us that Samson was there, I’ll never know. Ok, now for a happier story….

My friend, Jackie and I were hanging out one evening, watching movies and painting each others toenails; you know, girl stuff. We were going in and out of the house, paying attention as always, but maybe not as much as usual. Comet, my large gray talkative tabby, took this as a good time to sneak past one of us and out doors to freedom. He has always been one of those cats, determined to get outside, and will take any opportunity possible. Well, as soon as I noticed that he was missing, it was near midnight. I started out by calling him and shaking the treats. That works in the house, why not outside? I listened carefully for the tell-tale meow/yowl that is Comet’s usual response to shaking treats, clucking tongues, and his name being called. Well, I got nothing. The next morning, I checked around the house again, just in case (you know how cats can disappear, into the other world that they have), and then proceeded back outside to continue the treat shaking, tongue clucking and Comet calling. Again, nothing. This is weird, and now I’m really worried. I go inside, make a ton of signs and start hanging them up everywhere. I had to go to work, and again my work performance slipped because all I could think of was my kitty outside alone. I always had fresh water and food in the garage for a couple of neighborhood cats, so I thought, if he can find his way home, at least he’ll have that. This went on for a whole week, 10 days, actually. I opened the door from the kitchen into the garage that 10th morning, like I did every day that he was missing, and there was Comet staring at me. A little lighter, for sure, but still looked like my Cometus! I checked him over, from snout to tail, and had the vet do the same, and he was fine. That boy hasn’t gotten out again, and my husband and I are extra careful that this never happens again.

Ok, so here are some great lost and found tips:

FOUND A PET (From the Humane Society of the United States)

You’re driving your car when you see a dog on the side of the road. With a sinking feeling, you realize he’s alone. What should you do?

How to help

This is a wrenching scenario for all who care about animals. Once you’ve seen the dog (or cat or even rabbit), many feel it’s too late to drive away from him or her. After all, what if your own pet were standing there? So, before you pull over, use these guidelines for assisting animals safely and effectively.

Safety first

You cannot help an animal if you become injured in the process. Look in your rear-view mirror before braking, signal your intentions, pull your car completely off the road, turn off the ignition, set the parking brake and put on hazard lights. If you have emergency flares, prepare to use them.

Consider the safety of the animal. A strange, frightened and possibly sick or injured animal can behave unpredictably. A sudden move on your part, even opening your car door, can spook him and cause him to bolt—possibly right onto the highway. If the animal looks or acts threatening, or, if for any reason, you feel uneasy about the situation, stay in your car.

If possible, restrain the animal. Create a barrier or use a carrier, leash, piece of cloth or length of rope to keep the animal from leaving the area. Signal approaching vehicles to slow down if you cannot confine the animal, or divert traffic around him if he appears to be injured and is still on the roadway.

Use caution

Use caution when approaching the animal. Should you succeed in getting close enough to capture him, you stand a good chance of being scratched or bitten.

When approaching the animal, speak calmly to reassure him. Make sure he can see you at all times as you approach, and perhaps entice him to come to you by offering a strong-smelling food such as canned tuna or dried liver.

Lure him in

Try to lure an animal into your car with food, close the door, and wait for help. Only do this if you are certain someone will come to get the animal very soon. In most cases it is not a good idea to attempt to drive somewhere with a strange dog unrestrained in your car; he may become frantic or aggressive once you’re in the car with him. Cats may do the same, as well as lodge themselves under the car seat, from which extracting them can be dangerous.

Call for backup

If you’re not able to safely restrain the animal, call the local police or animal control agency. Do so whether or not the animal is injured, and whether or not he is wearing an identification tag. Call the local animal care and control agency (in rural areas, call the police or sheriff) and report the situation. Leave your phone number with the dispatcher and try to get an estimate of how long it may take someone to respond. If possible, stay on the scene to keep an eye on the dog or cat until help arrives. Make sure you report to authorities precisely where the animal is by using road names, mile markers or landmarks.

Take him to safety

If you are able to transport the animal, take him to the nearest animal shelter. If you plan to keep the animal in the event no owner is found, notify animal control that you have the animal or that you have taken him to a veterinary hospital for treatment. You can usually place a free “found” ad in your local newspaper. Keep a copy of the ID to prove your good intentions should any question arise later.

Be ready

If you know in your heart that you’re a rescuer, why not equip yourself to do the best possible job? Here are some things to have in your car at all times:

• Phone; phone numbers of local animal control, a shelter, and a 24-hour emergency veterinary clinic
• Cat carrier or cardboard box
• Collars and strong leashes for dogs
• Heavy blanket; water bowls and water
• Strong-smelling foods, such as canned tuna or dried liver
• An animal first-aid kit.

Check the laws

To check on any relevant laws in your state, county or town, contact your local animal control agency, humane society or SPCA. Many times the animal you find along the highway will turn out to be un-owned, unwanted and unclaimed. Even so, the person finding the stray dog or cat does not automatically become the owner or keeper until he has satisfied certain state and/or local requirements.

In almost every state, the animal is not “owned” by the finder until the holding period for strays (as specified by state or local laws) has expired and the finder has made an attempt to reunite the animal with his original owner and/or has taken steps—obtaining vaccinations, license, collar and identification tag—to prove he is now the owner.

Accidents happen

Good Samaritans who have never lost a cherished companion animal may conclude that the owner of the found dog or cat callously abandoned him or, at the very least, neglected to keep him safely confined at home. But accidents can happen to anyone. The frantic owner could be looking everywhere for their beloved pet.

Understand the limitations of animal care and control agencies. Once you have taken the initiative, time and trouble to rescue a dog or cat along the highway, you might be surprised to find that the rest of the pet care community might not necessarily rush forward to do what you see as its part. For instance, you can take a badly injured stray dog to animal control and find out that the agency is unable to provide expensive surgery to treat the dog’s injuries. In those cases, shelters euthanize the animals to relieve them from their suffering. A cat with relatively minor injuries can be kept for only the mandated stray holding period and then be euthanized. Virtually all animal control facilities have severe budgetary or space limitations and must make painful decisions about how best to allocate their inadequate resources.

Before you take an injured animal to a private veterinary hospital for treatment, be willing to assume financial responsibility for the animal before treatment begins. Good care is not cheap, and many veterinarians have many Samaritans in their waiting rooms every year. Anyone who is committed to trying to save injured stray animals should discuss these issues in advance with the veterinarian. Fortunately, some states have laws that allow the veterinarian to collect from a fund for treating unowned injured animals who have been presented to them by animal control or a good Samaritan.

If you’re uncertain about whether or not to help or keep an animal you see alongside the road, here’s a final word of advice: First, think of what you would want the finder of your animal to do if he happened to find him injured without his collar.

You’d want him to take your pet to a veterinarian, and you’d want him to try to find you. At the same time, be reasonable about how much you can afford to do for that animal if no owner shows up.

LOST A PET (from MissingPet.net)

Although finding a lost animal often seems to depend on luck, it is luck you can help make. There are no guarantees, but there are things people who find their pets do that make a difference.

1) Knock on doors and talk to people in the neighborhood.
Most people walk the streets around their home and call their pet. People who knock on their neighbor’s doors and ask if anyone has seen their pet instead of just calling are more likely to find it.

2) Hand out fliers with your pet’s picture on them and your phone number.
Fliers need only have a clear photo of the animal and a telephone number that someone will answer or that is hooked to an answering machine.

3) Go to all local shelters and government agencies charged with picking up stray and lost animals and look for yourself, at least every other day.
Calling the animal control department or shelter on the phone is not very effective. Your pet  may not yet be listed in the records at the front desk, and the way you describe your pet may not be the way a shelter describes your dog. Any animal may become dirty,  matted and neglected looking very quickly, and  You must visit the shelter, even if your pet was wearing tags when it was lost.

You will need to go to the shelters at least every other day. Few shelters can keep animals for more than 72 hours. Sometimes it takes more than a few days for a pet to be picked up and brought to a shelter.

It’s important to visit all the shelters within 20 miles of where your pet was lost.  In many areas stray animals are picked up by a government agency which holds them for a period and then turns them over to a shelter. If someone took your pet in for a few days hoping you would knock on their door and ask about it, they might later drop your pet off at the shelter that’s most convenient for them, rather the one that’s closest.

Combining these three things is most effective. Knocking on doors and handing out copies of your flier to your neighbors and to the staff at all the local shelters is the most effective way of looking for your lost pet.

What to do next…

Unfortunately, the next most successful way of finding a lost animal is through checking the with the highway departments and the shelters’ dead lists. Even if your pet is wearing tags and the highway maintenance department is supposed to send a list to animal control, you should check with them directly.

There are usually several departments that cover roads in your area. You’ll need to check city or town, county and state roads departments, as well as the animal control agencies. Pictures or a copy of your flier should be left with each department. Again, calling is seldom successful, and actually visiting the department is the best way. You should check back once a week.

Put an ad in the local paper, and in the papers in surrounding areas. Some people only look in the newspaper to locate an animal’s owner. Advertising in the paper can also be important to establish you were actively looking for your pet in case someone were to claim it you meant to give it up or didn’t want it.

Ask businesses that people who live in the area are likely to use to put up a copy of your flier. This includes gas stations, fast food restaurants, taverns and convenience and grocery stores. Ask if you can put a copy of your flier up in the pet food aisle. If someone picks up your animal and holds it for a few days hoping you will find them just as your pet did, they will need food.

Contact local rescue organizations and give them copies of your flier. People who are afraid animals will be euthanized if they turn them over to the shelter might contact a rescue, and rescue people often go through local shelters looking for animals they can help place in new homes. Ask the shelters if they know of anyone doing rescue in the area, even if they don’t work with them.

Give copies of your flier to veterinarians, groomers, trainers and pet stores and ask them to put them up.

Give copies of your flier to people that walk their dogs in the area. They’re more likely to spot animals than most people. If you go to the parks early, you may find people who regularly walk their dogs together as an informal group. Dogs on leash notice and want to investigate all kinds of things, even strange birds, lizards and turtles. (end)

Those are great ideas, but don’t forget about the internet. It’s a huge resource. Make sure you tell your pet sitter or dog walker to let their network know about your missing pet. They usually know a lot of people, and can get the word out on any local forums or threads that they post on. Here are some great websites that you can post your missing pet:

PetFinder

MissingPet.net

FidoFinder

Pets 911

Help Lost Pets

Find Toto

MissingPets.com

“…love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.” (Kabil Gibran)

The story below was found on AJC.com and it really wrings my heart. Each and every one of our seven pets that we enjoy our lives with have their own stories of being homeless and not altered. Now they are living in the lap of luxury, being showered with affection and attention, are spayed and neutered, and only leave the house on a leash. It’s hard to imagine that they could have become one of the statistics, and be euthanized just because some person let his unaltered dog run free. It’s puppy season right now and any unaltered dog has a large chance of running off if they catch a whiff of the opposite sex. If you don’t have your dog spayed or neutered, please ask yourself why and then why not. There are MANY low cost spay and neuter clinics around Georgia. Here is a list of about 30 of them: Low Cost Spay/Neuter, Vaccinations and Veterinarians in Georgia

Here’s the AJC story:

Counties killing dogs, cats by the thousands

By Patrick Fox

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Troubled times are dooming more dogs and cats in metro Atlanta, and the same poor economy that puts animals in the pound ensures that many won’t get out.

Counties are cutting budgets at a time when animal shelters are putting down a growing number of animals. In the past two years, the number of cats and dogs destroyed at animal shelters in the five core metro counties has risen 24 percent. Last year, the counties killed almost 30,000 cats and dogs in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett.

Gwinnett County led 2009 with 7,588 cats and dogs put down, almost half of them because the shelter could not house them.

“We are trying to help citizens who are having financial trouble and can’t feed their animals by giving them food donated to the shelter by local merchants,” said Gwinnett police Lt. Mary Lou Respess, who is director of the county’s animal shelter. “The shelter also helps sponsor events at local pet supply stores to promote adoptions and is planning a free spay and neuter clinic this spring for pit and pit mixes, the most common breed at the shelter.”

All the adoption promotions in the world will never solve the problem, said Virginia Keller, president of the Spay Neuter Action Coalition of Georgia.

“These people just don’t get it,” she said. “There will never be enough homes for all the animals that are produced at today’s rate. Never. The answer to this problem is strictly spay and neuter.”

Keller said she has seen people repeatedly drop off puppies or kittens at the shelter with no thought that they could end the cycle with a simple operation on their dogs. Others, she said, get a $1,000 pure-bred puppy and think they’re going to get their money back by breeding it. But instead, it wanders down the street and produces some mixed-breed pups that the owner has to try to give away, she said.

“They think animal control is an adoption center,” Keller said. “No way. I don’t know how you get this idea across to people, unless they want to come and watch it happen.”

Another tack many animal rights groups take is offering to volunteer at shelters. Several groups in Gwinnett have said they would drum up volunteers, but Respess has said there are liability issues to consider when working inside the kennels.

There are some things volunteers can do. Gwinnett’s shelter has begun a program to get volunteers to walk the dogs. Gail La Berge, who heads the county animal advisory council, said the staff has found the dog-walking program improves the animals’ disposition and makes them more adoptable. She also said volunteers can sign up online and commit to times of their choice.

The Gwinnett shelter has also explored expanding hours into evenings to allow working families more time to visit and shop for a pet. Statistics show a noticeable increase in adoptions when the shelter remains open late, La Berge said, but budget cuts won’t allow for overtime, so the shelter is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.

The lean budget prompted the advisory council in mid-March to recommend increasing fees. The council, which recommends policy changes to the county commission, voted to double the charge for daily boarding to $10 and for quarantine to $200. But members balked at a suggestion to more than double the owner surrender fee from $20 to $50, fearing owners would abandon their animals on the streets. The fee was increased to $25.

Respess said the shelter offers reduced rates of $60 for spaying and neutering for animals that are being reclaimed, in lieu of the reclaim fee and subsequent boarding fees. The service includes rabies, DHLPP shots and microchip.

Other animal assistance groups operate on fewer dollars but with as much devotion.

“I think the increase is due to people losing their jobs,” said Samantha Shelton, founder and president of Furkids, the largest no-kill shelter in Georgia. “Yet there are so many resources out there that are available to people.”

Furkids operates a 5,000 square-foot facility for cats near Doraville. It also runs seven full-time adoption centers and has 20 active foster homes for dogs and kittens.

Over the past two years, the organization has seen donations plummet, yet it still offers free food and medical care to help owners keep their pets during tough times.

“I wish we could keep more of these pets in their homes, rather than people turning them over to animal control,” Shelton said.

Euthanasia counts at metro county shelters

	2007	2008	2009
Clayton
Cats	1,867	2,095	2,258
Dogs	3,095	3,715	4,099
Cobb
Cats	3,394	4,058	4,000
Dogs	3,095	3,715	4,099
DeKalb
Cats	1,077	1,895	1,843
Dogs	2,751	3,390	3,619
Fulton
Cats	464	400	565
Dogs	2,664	2,573	1,958
Gwinnett
Cats Dogs	3,169 2,763	4,025 2,966	4,588 3,020
Totals	23,874	28,091	29,612

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.                – Charles Kuralt

I found this little guy wondering around a neighborhood off of Sugarloaf Parkway on April 21, 2010. He’s very sweet, very much a lap dog and great with our other 3 dogs and our 4 cats. I’m sure someone is looking for him. He’s not neutered and was very dirty, but he’s nice and clean now. If I don’t find his people, I’ll be looking to find him a great furever home, after we have him vaccinated and neutered. I took him to Lawrenceville Suwanee Animal Hospital to be scanned for a micro-chip and he doesn’t have one.  I’m giving it a week before I have him neutered, but after that, chop chop! Ouch, poor guy. We’re calling him Chi Chi for now, just because for some reason it fits. He looks a lot like a Westie, but also has Maltese or possibly Chihuahua features- he only weighs about 4 pounds. Below are some pictures:

“To be followed home by a stray dog is a sign of impending wealth.”-Chinese Proverb-

 

UPDATE:

A couple of days after I found him, “Chi Chi’s” mom saw our fliers that we had put up and gave me a call. After giving me a nice description on his collar and mannerisms, I gave her my address so that she could pick him up. She was very grateful to have found him; her friends were taking care of him and he escaped the friend’s back yard when the yard people left the gate open. His name is actually “Prancer” and it truly fits him well. He was happy to see his mama and little human brother and they were happy to have him home! Yay, happy ending!