What Do You Do If Your Pet Is Missing?

Accidents happen and sometimes your pet gets away from your home and gets lost.  So what do you do?  Who do you tell?  Well the first thing you can do is print out a picture of him/her on a flyer and post it all over your neighborhood and tell all of your neighbors.  Then what?  Here's some ideas and links:

http://www.missingpet.net/cgi-bin/statepage.pl?NC

http://www.spcawake.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Lost_FoundLOSTpet

http://www.lostmydoggie.com/index.cfm?source=10

Wherever you live, there are shelters that can post flyers and information about your pet and they may even have online information so you can post your pet there as well in case someone finds him/her and looks up lost and found information.

This is also where microchipping your pet is extremely important.  People can take your pet to a local shelter, rescue organization or vet to be scanned and your information will come up as the pet's owner and you can be contacted.  I've personally seen this happen and had some happy endings for some people.

There are quite a few companies out there that deal with microchips and your vet can answer any questions you may have as well as implant the chip itself.  It is not a surgical procedure and takes less than a minute to do.  The chip itself is about the size of a grain of rice and is inserted just under the skin.  It is worth the time you spend to have this done if your pet is ever missing because if someone finds him/her and you haven't had this done and they end up in the shelter they may not make it out because they might be put to sleep.

This is a microchip (on the left)

If you are interested in some companies that will register your chip send me a note or ask your vet.  If you got your pet from a breeder then he/she should have already given you some information about microchipping.

If you find a stray animal please do not assume it's mean or feral because it may be someone's lost pet.  If it's friendly and comes up to you call your vet and see if he/she will come out and scan the pet or if you can take the animal to your vet for scanning to make sure someone isn't missing their family member.

Again, if you would like more information on microchipping companies please contact me or your local vet.

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