Health & Safety Hub

Find a Lost Pet

Work the steps below in order. A loose dog and a frightened cat behave differently, so the first day is searched differently. Use the Dog and Cat switch to see the guidance for your pet.

Use tool below

Dog

The first 24 hours, for a dog

A loose dog covers distance. Search wide, along routes and open ground, and get the description in front of as many people as possible, because a dog is likely to be seen or picked up by a stranger before you find it yourself.

Use the Dog and Cat switch at the top of this page to read the other one.

Search your own property before you go anywhere
Check the garage, the car, any shed or outbuilding, and behind and under furniture. Walk the whole fence line and check every gate. Write down the exact place and time your dog was last seen, because every later step is measured from it.
Work outward from the spot they were last seen
A loose dog usually keeps moving rather than staying near home, so search along paths, roads, open ground and the routes you normally walk. Cover the ground on foot where you can and by car where you cannot, and go back over the same routes more than once.
Do not chase, and do not call out
A frightened dog moves away from a person walking toward it, including its own owner. If you see your dog, stop, crouch or sit down side on, and stay quiet. Put food on the ground in front of you and let your dog decide to close the distance.
Leave scent and food where they went missing
Put your dog's bed or crate, an unwashed item of your clothing, and water and food at the place they were last seen. Check it through the day and after dark rather than only in daylight.
Tell the people who cover ground you cannot
Delivery drivers, dog walkers, runners, park and school staff and the nearest veterinary clinics all pass through places you will not reach today. Give them one phone number and a clear photo, and ask them to call you rather than try to catch your dog.

Check the microchip registration

A microchip is an identity number, not a tracker. It has no battery, no location and no signal.
It only works when someone scans your pet and the registry holding that number still has a phone number that reaches you.
Updating your details takes minutes and can be done from anywhere, so do it before you go back out searching.

AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup

Enter a 9, 10 or 15 digit chip number and it returns the registries that hold a record for that number, most recent first.

It does not return owner contact details, and it is not where a chip is registered or updated. It points you at the registry, and you contact the registry yourself.
If more than one company comes back, start with the first on the list and work down it.
If the chip was implanted but never registered, it returns the manufacturer or distributor instead. Ask them for trackback information.
It only searches registries that have chosen to take part, so a chip can be registered somewhere the tool does not cover.

Registries to contact

Large United States registries, in no particular order. If the lookup names a registry that is not here, contact the one it names. Fees and what each one lets you update are set by the registry, so check its own page.

AKC ReuniteMicrochips and a lost pet recovery service for dogs and cats.HomeAgainMicrochip registration and pet recovery.24PetwatchMicrochip registry and lost pet services, now part of PetPlace.PetLinkMicrochip registration from Datamars, for dogs, cats and other pets.AVID PETtracThe recovery service Avid runs for the microchips it manufactures.

Print and hand out

Both sheets are blank, print from the browser and need no account. Fill them in by hand so you can be out of the door with them in a few minutes.

Neighbor AlertOne page to fill in and hand to the houses either side and behind you.Door HangerTwo to a sheet, for doors where nobody answers.

Members on a plan that includes Hub+ can build a poster that is already filled in from a saved pet profile, photo and microchip number included. Open it from your pet's profile.

Calling animal control

Animal control, in some places called animal services, is a city or county agency, and in some areas the work is contracted out to a local humane society. It is the service that picks up stray animals and runs, or supplies, the shelter they are taken to.

Call them when

Your pet is injured, or is somewhere dangerous such as a road, and needs to be picked up.
Somebody has your pet contained and you cannot get there to collect them.
Your pet has bitten a person or another animal, because bite reporting and quarantine are handled by that agency.
You need a lost report on file, so that the staff booking in a found animal have something to match it against.
You have been told a stray matching your pet was collected, and you need to know which shelter it went to.

How long a found animal is held before it can be adopted out or transferred is set locally, not nationally, and it varies. The clock starts when the animal is booked in, not when you noticed your pet was missing. Ask your own agency what its hold period is, and file your lost report the same day rather than waiting.

Highlights

A first 24 hours sequence, written separately for dogs and for cats

The universal microchip lookup, and the registries it points you at

A printable neighbor alert and door hanger, free and with no account

Deep Dive

The tool above is what to do now. This part is the reference: where a lost report actually needs to go, when animal control is the right call, and why the two species are searched differently.

Where to file a lost report

A lost report is not one call. Your pet can be picked up in one jurisdiction, driven to a clinic in another, and booked into a shelter you have never heard of, so the report has to reach all of them.

The shelter covering the place your pet went missing, which is not always the one nearest your home.
Every other shelter whose area your pet could have reached on foot.
Veterinary and emergency clinics near where they went missing, because a found animal is often taken straight there to be scanned.
Neighborhood apps and local social media groups, with one photo, the last seen place and time, and one phone number.
Local rescue and lost pet volunteer networks. Ask the shelter you filed with which ones are active, because they will know the current ones.

Go to the shelter in person, and keep going back

Shelter staff record an animal by what they see. A short haired brown cat on your report can be logged as a tabby on theirs, and no online report can correct that mismatch.

Walking the kennels yourself is the only way to rule your pet out, and animals arrive every day, so one visit is not enough.

When to call animal control

Animal control, in some places called animal services, is a city or county agency, and in some areas the work is contracted out to a local humane society. It picks up stray animals and runs, or supplies, the shelter they are taken to.

How long a found animal is held before it can be adopted out or transferred is set locally and it varies. The clock starts when the animal is booked in, not when you noticed your pet was missing, so file the report the same day rather than waiting to see if your pet comes home.

Your pet is injured, or is somewhere dangerous such as a road, and needs picking up.
Somebody has your pet contained and you cannot get there to collect them.
Your pet has bitten a person or another animal, because bite reporting and quarantine are handled by that agency.
You need a lost report on file, so staff booking in a found animal have something to match it against.

Why a dog is searched wide

A loose dog usually keeps moving, so the ground to cover grows through the day rather than staying still. That is why the dog steps push you outward along routes and open ground, and push the description in front of as many people as possible.

It is also why chasing works against you. A frightened dog moves away from anyone walking toward it, its owner included, so the useful instruction to give a stranger is to call you, not to catch your dog.

If your pet is not home after the first day

Keep every report open and current. Ring the shelters back, walk the kennels again, and repeat the same search at the quiet hours rather than only in daylight.

Keep the microchip registration correct even while your pet is missing. It is the one step that keeps working when you are asleep.

Find a Lost Pet

Work the steps below in order. A loose dog and a frightened cat behave differently, so the first day is searched differently. Use the Dog and Cat switch to see the guidance for your pet.

Use tool below

Dog