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Lost & Found - Tips and Advice

Lost a pet?

  • Information regarding the Amber Alert protocol for lost pets is available here.


  • Do a thorough search of your property and surrounding neighbourhood. Look in sheds, under buildings, in parks especially along waterways - anywhere your animal could be trapped - and look inside ceilings for cats.


  • In your neighborhood and surrounding area, call and whistle to your pet or carry an object that normally attracts your pet’s attention (i.e. favorite squeaky toy, a can of treats that can be shaken or rattled, etc.). He may be injured, frightened or trapped and unable to come to you. Hearing your voice may encourage him to answer you.


  • Hopefully, your pet was wearing some form of identification. Contact the local Animal Services or Humane Society in your area immediately and give a detailed description of your pet. Make sure that your address and phone number is current with your microchip company.


  • Put up flyers (put a picture, work or cell phone number, detailed description of your pet, area lost and any reward if applicable) at shopping centres, veterinary clinics, schools, neighbourhoods, local shelters, grocery stores, libraries and laundromats. Always ask each place to ensure that it is okay to post items.


  • Leave fresh food and water outside on a porch or in a sheltered area close to your home. Also set up a large cardboard box lined with an old towel or other items that smell familiar to your pet. If your lost pet should return while you are asleep or away from home, food and shelter may save it's life. This is also an incentive for it to stay close by. Check the box and food supply regularly during quiet evening and early morning hours.


  • The best time to look for a lost cat is in the dark — between dusk and dawn — when streets are quiet. A lost and hiding cat will come out in the dark to look for food. Take a flashlight with you and search under parked cars, in yards and under bushes as well as in alleys.


  • Visit all the local shelters every few days. Often the finder tries to keep the pet and will give it up at a later date. Keep looking for at least 6 months.


  • If you have found your pet, contact all the local shelters that you reported the lost animal to so that they can update their records.


  • Do any other common sense item that you can think of.


    • Found a pet?

  • If the animal that you have found is wearing a tag, do not remove it. If the animal escapes from you, it does not have any way to communicate to anyone else. Contact your local Animal Services or Humane Society immediately.


  • If you find a pet the first thing you must do is confine it. Don't put it in with your pet/s as this may lead to fighting and injury to either the found animal or your pet/s. Try not to let the animal go back on the street. This can lead to the pet being injured or killed.


  • Have the pet scanned for a microchip at your local vet or at a shelter. Please note not all vets have a scanner so check with them first before taking the pet to them. Also microchips sometimes don't scan - the chip might not be compatible with the scanner being used, or it has moved so that it is missed - so that is is sometimes worth having the pet rescanned with a different scanner.


  • Put up flyers (put a picture, work or cell phone number, detailed description of the pet, area found) at shopping centres, veterinary clinics, schools, neighbourhoods, local shelters, grocery stores, libraries and laundromats. Always ask each place to ensure that it is okay to post items.


  • Walk around the neighbourhood with the pet on a leash. Try finding the owner.


  • Call your local Animal Services or Humane Society and leave a detailed description of the animal, as well as a number at which you can be reached. Always remember that this animal belongs to someone and they are searching for their pet.


  • If you cannot hold onto the animal, bring it to your local Animal Services or Humane Society.


  • If you have left a report with a shelter, please contact them immediately if you have found the owners, so that they can update their records.