If your dog comes up missing, it can be very scary, even if s/he hasn’t been stolen! Here’s a short list of people you may want to contact to help search for your lost dog.
Friends and Neighbors
1. Neighbors may have seen your dog running loose, or may have seen suspicious activity. Be sure to keep your dog on-leash/contained so when s/he is running loose, your neighbors will know to contact you!
2. Facebook is a great place to alert entire areas of people that a dog is missing. Post a current picture of your dog with a clear description, and ask your friends to share. Don’t forget a time and date, and update the post when your dog is found.
If Facebook has a lost/found page in your community, be sure to like and follow it now. If there isn’t one, perhaps you can start one. Be pro-active, and be sure to help others when their best friend is lost!
Professionals to Enlist and Alert
3. Animal Shelters will not know to call you if your dog isn’t wearing a collar with id/license attached, and s/he isn’t chipped. You would be surprised how many people never think to call the animal shelters or dog pound!
4. Police may be of assistance even when your dog hasn’t been stolen. Officers both in cars and on foot can call if they have spotted a loose dog fitting your dog’s description.
5. Area Veterinarians should be informed, also. This is one reason a microchip is important: if the vet takes in a dog fitting your dog’s description, whether as a “new” client or an accident victim, s/he can scan the dog to check for microchip id.
The Entire Community
6. Local Newspapers may seem archaic or unread, but the newspaper is a good bet for pets who have been missing a couple days or longer. There are large communities of people who don’t use Facebook or the internet. Shocking, right?
Many elderly people do not even own a computer and still rely on the newspaper, phone calls, and television for their news. Many check the lost and found section, and are more than willing to place a phone call to help a lost dog.
PS: Believe it or not, I have seen the description for a lost dog be an exact match for the description of a found dog appear in the same column of the newspaper. More than once.
