
Katie
401-662-7678
Kim
660-351-3095
Sarah
757-553-2256


Thank you!!
Kari Vincent
Volunteer and Outreach Manager
Norfolk SPCA
916 Ballentine Boulevard
Norfolk, VA 23504
757-622-3319 Ext. 110
How To Find A Lost Cat Or Dog
- Search your property thoroughly. Cats and small dogs can get into some
mighty strange places.
- Walk the neighborhood, talk to everybody, and leave your phone number.
- Offer a reward, but don't state the amount.
- Call local veterinarian offices during the day. After 5 PM, call veterinarian
emergency clinics.
- VISIT your local Animal Control, humane societies, and animal shelters,
including the ones in surrounding areas.
- Leave a picture of your pet and your phone number at each shelter.
Ask Animal Control, humane societies, and shelters about pet rescue
organizations in your area.
- Place an Ad in your local newspaper. Some will do this for free.
- Be sure to advertise in the Sunday edition as well as during the week.
-register with hrlostpets.pets.911.com
-post signs everywhere
Don't ever give up! Pets have been known to find their way back home
after being lost for several months. Good luck!
A Few Words Of Caution
There are dangerous people in our society who prey upon victims by
using "found" pets as a ploy.
NEVER respond to a "found" pet contact alone. Take a friend or two along with
you.
Arrange to meet in a public place.
NEVER invite the person to your home unless you happen to know them well.
Beware of money scams. A common one is a person calls you claiming to be a
long-haul trucker. He says he picked up your pet and is out of state now.
He heard about your ad, flyer, etc. and says he will return your pet if you
will pay to ship it home. This person does not have your pet, he is only
trying to take your money.
Don't wander around looking for your pet alone, either during the day or
at night. Always bring a friend or relative. This is especially important
in unfamiliar neighborhoods.
Use the identifying information you have withheld about your pet.
Please remember that you should never give out all of the identifying
features of your lost pet. If the person who claims to have found your
pet cannot describe these features to you, they do not have your pet!
Some additional information can be found here:
When You Find Your Pet
Go around and collect up all of your old flyers.
Thank everybody who has helped you.
Let us know! We are always glad to hear about lost and found "success" stories.
Recovering a Lost Cat
When it comes to looking for an indoor cat, she emphasizes this tip
--the investigative question to ask when an indoor-only cat
escapes outdoors is: where is the cat hiding? Albrecht gave me
this scenario: A cat owner comes home to find one of their
screen windows pushed out and their indoor-only cat missing.
They immediately go outside with a can of tuna calling for their cat.
With no luck, they make flyers, post them around town, and visit
their local animal shelter to search for their cat unsuccessfully.
Meanwhile, their cat is hiding in fearful silence under their
neighbor’s back porch. It isn’t until the cat reaches the threshold
point (usually 5-7 days later) due to hunger or thirst, that the cat
will start to meow when the owner walks around with a can of
tuna calling their pet’s name. The cat will be found only if the
owner knows to go into their neighbor’s yard (with permission
of course) to search for their kitty. Even if a cat was displaced
or lost due to a natural disaster, such as a fire, the cat may still
be close to home, setting up a new home and reestablishing a
new territory. Albrecht has found lost indoor cats weeks after
they went missing, so she urges pet owners to not lose hope.
Albrecht also stresses that using a baited humane live trap
as a recovery tool is a highly effective means to recover a lost cat.
The tools used to track down your lost cat are much different
if you have an outdoor cat that hasn’t returned home for dinner.
Albrecht says the investigative question to ask when an
outdoor-access cat disappears is: what happened to the cat?
She says that when an outdoor-access cat disappears, most
likely something has happened to interrupt its behavior of
coming home at night. Your outdoor-access cat could be
trapped, injured, or sick. She says that cats are territorial
and they don’t just run away from home like dogs do. So if
an outdoor-access cat is lost, an aggressive, physical search
of the cat’s territory should be conducted, which means looking
in every conceivable hiding place in your yard and your
neighbors’ yards. Albrecht also stresses the importance of
asking for permission to physically search the property of
your neighbors, rather than handing them a flyer and asking
them if they’ve seen your cat.
Aside from tracking down indoor cats versus outdoor cats,
Albrecht also considers the temperament of cats to determine
how far they’ve journeyed. If you have a curious cat, they may
journey farther than a xenophobic cat (cats who are afraid of
everything that is new or unfamiliar). The recovery methods
to find each type are different. Albrecht’s unique methods to
search for cats based on personality can be found on this page
of her website:missingpetpartnership.org
Feral Cats
Albrecht believes that many fearful cats are mistaken for
feral (wild) cats when brought to an animal shelter in a humane trap.
The cat will most likely either be euthanized or returned to the
wild in a feral cat colony, with the likelihood of recovery being slim.
The best thing you can do if you are an owner of a fearful cat,
is to microchip your pet. This doesn’t mean your cat won’t be
mistaken for a feral, but it will increase the chances of your pet
getting returned to you.
Recovering a Lost Dog
When it comes to dogs, Albrecht says they tend to run, rather
than hide; and the majority of stray dogs in shelters are lost
dogs, not stray dogs. Albrecht states: “It’s not as if these dogs
were found living in feral dog colonies. So they are lost not
stray.” She stresses that dog owners looking for their pets
should also check online under “found pets”
on www.craigslist.com or under “adoptable pets”
Just as a cat’s temperament will influence the distance it
travels when it becomes lost or displaced, the same is true
for dogs. A gregarious dog is more likely to go up to the
first person who calls out to them. These types of dogs
will most likely be found close to home. Albrecht believes
that outgoing dogs are most likely “adopted” by the person
who finds them because they are afraid to turn them into
shelters. In her experience, Albrecht has seen well-intentioned
people “rescue” a friendly dog only to find an undesirable
behavior down the road and then the dog is turned into a
shelter, long after the owner has stopped looking. More
lost dog recovery tips based on temperament can be found
on this page of Albrecht’s website: missingpetpartnership.org
Lost Pet Posters
Missing Pet Partnership has created an effective tool for recovering
lost pets with a method they call the “five + five + fifty-five rule.”
This rule states that at a given intersection you have five seconds
and five words to get your message across to drivers who are
traveling 55 miles an hour. These are the five rules for making
the poster:
* Make them giant so that people driving by cannot miss them.
* Make them fluorescent so that the color attracts the
attention of everyone.
* Put them at major intersections near where you lost your pet.
* Keep them brief and to the point.
* Make them with a visual image of the pet you have lost.
For an example of the type of poster Albrecht is discussing here, visit missingpetpartnership.org for more details.
Here’s a recap on Albrecht’s recovery tools for locating a lost dog or
cat. For cats, look close to home, set a humane trap, make posters
using the 5+5+55 rule and check your local shelter. For dogs, use
the 5+5+55 rule for creating a poster, check www.craigslist.com
and www.petfinder.com for found and adoptable dogs and check
your local shelter.
Prevention
As usual, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Albrecht suggests the following techniques to prevent your
pet from becoming lost and to help your pet return home
if it happens to become lost.
Microchip your pet. It’s inexpensive and typically lasts your
pet’s lifetime.
* Outfit your dog and cat with a collar and id tag. Albrecht
says that if your pet currently doesn’t have an id tag, create
your own until you can get to the store. Take a piece of white
paper and cut it to the width of your pet’s collar. Write your
phone number down on that piece of paper and tape it on to
the collar with clear packing tape. Albrecht tried this out
with her dog as an experiment and it lasted eight months!
* Check the screens on your windows to make sure they’re secure.
* Check backyard fences to make sure they’re up to par by kicking
the boards to see if they’re loose, checking for holes, etc.
Albrecht would like to see lost pet services available in every
community. It’s difficult for pet owners who are not trained,
and who are panicked and grieving, to search for their own lost
pets, she says. Missing Pet Partnership has dedicated volunteers
that help recover lost pets, however, their funds and resources
are limited. They need donations, volunteers to help with
fundraising, qualified board members with business skills and
assistance in marketing. For more information on how you
can help facilitate the development of community-based lost
pet services, visit lostapet.org.
If you are interested in locating a pet detective in your area, visit missingpetpartnership.org. To learn more about
Kat Albrecht and her organization Missing Pet Partnership,
and to donate to her cause or become a member, visit any
of her three websites:
Albreccht also has two books: Dog Detectives: Train
Your Dog to Find Lost Pets and The Lost Pet Chronicles:
Adventures of a K-9 Cop Turned Pet Detective. Both books
can be found on www.amazon.com
