Your pet has disappeared. Not from your house or your neighborhood, but from a place with which your pet is unfamiliar, far from home. You are unfamiliar with the place, too. Maybe you were on a trip together and something very bad happened—a car accident, a health emergency, an injury. Your pet is not only separated from you, your pet is terrified, alone, hurt, somewhere he has never been before, somewhere he knows no one and recognizes nothing. He has run from the scene, he is hiding in fear, he is holed up wounded. Of course, you imagine the worst . . . and your pet may be experiencing it.
What do you do?
You are smart. When you travel with your pet, you always carry with you his basic information: photos, microchip number and registration, full description, emergency numbers (your veterinarian, family and friends’ contact information). And you’ve made that information accessible even if you aren’t, in a sealed container attached to your pet’s kennel, in a cylinder attached to his collar, and in your wallet, where it can be easily found and acted on—whether you are conscious or not—at the scene of an emergency.
Your friends and family are alerted immediately, of course, and law enforcement personnel are aware at the scene that you had a pet or pets with you when the emergency occurred. You may be out of your neighborhood, out of your state—even out of your country—but the complete and thorough information you carry has gotten a search started even before your family and friends can get there to help. Should your pet be found, his veterinary information can go with him, and the family member or friend acting as your stand-in can authorize treatment by phone and make decisions, even though you may not be available to consult right away.
Should your pet not be found immediately, your assigned stand-in can mobilize an online search from home while family members or friends travel to the scene to help, with the aid of local authorities. It’s possible your family may be able to get your lost pet local TV coverage where the emergency occurred by immediately offering photos and a description of the pet. If a friend or family member is on site, a personal trip to local media might be well worth it. Call on their sympathy, give some basic information about what happened, include an update on the human/s in the accident or incident, provide contact numbers where sightings can be reported, and showcase a heart-grabbing message about the lost pet or pets to get the attention of viewers and listeners.
Helpers on site—where the accident or incident happened—can start tracking your pet. Expect that a frightened or injured pet might flee initially from the scene. Look close by, but expand your search from that location, too. Keep notes on where searches have been conducted. Return to areas with any signs that might possibly have been left by your pet. Talk to anyone and everyone you encounter, passing out flyers and urging them to let you know if they spot anything that might be of help. Involve locals and ask for help. Always ask for help!
Near the location where your pet was lost, find a relatively safe place to “leave a message” for the pet. This message should include:
- Recently worn (unwashed) clothing of yours; something that will smell like you to the pet
- Recently used (unwashed) bedding of the pet’s, if available
- The pet’s kennel, if it survived the emergency, or a similar shelter—not smelling of an unfamiliar pet—with the door taken off
- Water and food, which should be replaced or refilled daily
Your pet may be sighted in a particular area—one not far from homes in an otherwise rural landscape, for example—that is not near the location from which he was lost. Set up that same “message” to your pet in that area, too, in a place that would seem the safest to your pet. Your search crew may find signs your pet has hung out somewhere—slept-upon ground cover, perhaps—so build your “safe place” there in the hope he will return to that location. Tell the neighbors, if any, what you are doing, and don’t forget to ask permission from the land owners, if you can find them. Leave contact information at the safe place in case someone sees your pet there.
I have heard of search parties for lost pets setting up “game cameras” in likely locations, along with shelter, food, and water for the pet. You may be lucky enough to own such equipment or to borrow it from someone who’s willing to help. If you’ve got it, use it. Heck, if you’ve got a drone, use the drone! You might be able to spot your pet and figure out what times you’re most likely to find him at a given location. You can coordinate helpers much more easily around a specific place and time where there’s a good chance of encountering the lost animal.
Once you have a location where your pet has been seen, consider the possibility of using a humane trap to capture him or her. These cage-like “traps” are baited with food, the animal walks into the cage to get the food, the cage door closes on him, and he is kept there safely until you or your search crew arrives to open the trap. And then to take your formerly lost pet immediately to a veterinarian for a thorough exam and treatment, followed by a trip home to be returned to you and your family.
Contact local animal control, wildlife officials, or law enforcement to borrow or rent a humane trap appropriate to the size of your lost pet. Enlist their aid in learning how to set it up. Understand that humane traps should in no way further injure your animal. They are intended to catch an animal without hurting it so it can be returned to its owners or, if it’s a wild animal, be released back into the wild in a more appropriate location. (This happens often with skunks.)
Don’t give up!
Keep looking, keep asking for help, keep in touch with local authorities even after you and your search crew have gone home to wait for further news. Put up a page for your lost pet on Facebook and other social media sites, and keep sharing whatever information you have. It’s remarkable how much people—total strangers—will want to help. Your job will be to sort the “hopeful” information from the “real sightings” of your pet. It won’t be easy and it might break your heart, but you will be doing something, at least, and that might make you feel better. Pets have been returned to their owners months later—years later!—because they were microchipped and scanned. It can happen.
