Right Away

As soon as you realize that your pet is missing, you should start looking right away.  You should first make a quick physical search of your home and the surrounding area.  Don't forget to look in indoor hiding places, or in places where your pet could have been locked in, such as a garage or shed.  When you are out calling for your pet, don't forget to be quiet for a bit, so that you can listen for any response.

Check in with your immediate neighbors, to let them know that you are missing your pet.  Ask if they might have seen your pet recently, and if so, under what circumstances.  (Don't stay to chat, as time is of the essence.)  Make sure that the local neighborhood children know that you are looking for your pet, as they are oftentimes outdoors more than adults and would have more opportunities to see your pet.  When you describe your pet, make sure you use plain terminology to describe the size, color, and look of your pet.  Most people, especially kids, are not very familiar with specific breeds, so it won't be enough to just say that your pet is a particular breed, such as a German Shepherd dog or a Maine Coon cat.

If you don't have any luck after a quick search, see if you can have someone keep looking while you start working on a simple flier.  This first version of your flier should be done very quickly, with just the bare basics about your pet and how someone can get a hold of you.  This flier can be hand written and doesn't need to have a picture if one will be hard to find.  It just needs to be something that you can put together quickly and get copied.  Take the copies around to every home in your neighborhood, keeping an eye out for your pet as you go along.

If your pet is not familiar with the area around your home, such as in the case with an indoor-only cat, you should also put together a “smell station” that you can set up outside your home.  The smell station should be made up of some kind of temporary shelter (either a carrier or perhaps a cardboard box) and should include items that would have a familiar smell to your pet.  The reason for this is because pets have such a good sense of smell, and they will seek out things that smell familiar and safe.  This will help keep your pet in the area near your home, and will make your search much easier.  Good items to include would be things such as favorite pet bedding or blankets, pet toys, litter (still dirty, if possible), and sweaty clothes from your family members.  If you don't have any dirty clothes available, try sleeping in a T-shirt overnight or put out a used pillow case.  Just make sure that the smelly items are in a place that won't get wet in the rain, since the rain can cut down on the strength of the odor.  Over the course of your search for your pet, you may need to update the smell station occasionally, to make sure that it could still be found by your pet.

Along with the smell station (but not too close to the litter box), you should for sure put out some food and water, to make sure that your pet has access to these necessities.  (Remember that wet food spoils.)  Don't worry if you will be feeding the neighborhood pets – it is far more important that your pet has a chance to eat and drink, and the availability of food and water will also make it more likely that your pet will stay closer to home.

Shelters

If you don't have any luck finding your pet in a day or so, you should take some time to file lost pet reports with all of the local shelters and animal welfare organizations.  Some of these you will be able to submit over the phone and others will require that you come in to fill out the paperwork.  It is a good idea to go in to the shelters anyway, so that you can look through the animals that have been turned in recently.  You should visit the shelters within three days of your pet being lost, at the very latest, because the holding period at some shelters can be as short as three days.

Don't expect your pet to show up a shelter right away, however.  Lost pets tend to be very leery of strangers, and it is not very likely that your lost pet will approach someone directly for help.  As we discussed in the last section, it is also very unlikely that your pet will even be recognized as being lost, especially at first.

Make sure that you file complete reports with all of the local animal shelters and animal welfare agencies in your area, since they don't have time to share lost and found reports.  Be careful to describe your pet using plain terminology, because there is far too much room for interpretation when you use terms like “ginger tom”, “flame point”, or “collie mix”.  If you can leave a copy of a picture, that will also be extremely helpful, and invaluable.  (Make sure this is an extra photo, however, and not anything that you will need in your search.  If you only have one good photo, you can get a color Xerox at a copy center on your way to the shelter.)

When you are at the shelter or calling the animal welfare organization, make sure to ask if they have a found pet recording.  Many shelters will record a phone message each day with a list of the animals that were picked up or turned in that day.  If they do have one of these recordings, make sure that you call it faithfully every evening, as they are often made fresh each day.  If you hear the description of a pet that sounds even remotely like your pet, you should follow up with a visit, since people can describe pets very differently or use terms that you don't always recognize.  Even if you don't hear any possible matches, you should still go in to the shelters every few days anyway, since it may be possible for a pet to be overlooked on the recording or for the paperwork to be missed in all of the busy work at the shelter.

Be sure to ask about the holding policies of each shelter, as these will vary quite a bit.  If a shelter can only guarantee to hold a pet for four or five days, make sure that you visit at least that often, so that you can be assured that your pet won't be put to sleep or adopted out without you even knowing that they were in the shelter. 

Classified Ads

Another helpful technique that you can use to find your pet is to place a lost pet advertisement in the classified section of the local newspapers.  You generally have to pay for this kind of ad, but they can reach a lot of people.  Most people who find a pet will take the time to scan the classifieds, so this is something that you don't want to skip.  Just make sure to use plain descriptive words in the ad, avoiding fancy terms and breed-specific language, as most people won't know what you are talking about.

Keep in mind that you may have to run your ad more than once, as it may take some time before your pet is found by someone else.

Fliers and Signs

By far, the most effective tools for finding your lost pet are signs and fliers.  Since the biggest obstacle that your pet faces is the fact that people can't tell that it is lost, the best remedy would be one that gets the word out about your pet.  Fliers are particularly effective, because if you do them right, you can make sure that everyone in your extended neighborhood knows about your lost pet.

As soon as your initial flier is out and you have reported your pet to the local agencies, you should start working on your regular flier and sign.  This version still doesn't have to be fancy, but it will probably take some time to put together in order to make sure that you are including all of the material that will make it work the best for you.

Fliers and signs are so important to your search effort, in fact, that we are dedicating the whole next section on how to put them together.