Finding Your Lost Dog or Cat

Facebook: Create a Facebook page for your lost dog so you can recruit volunteers and post updates on sightings. In addition, post a photo and description on your Facebook page and ask your friends to share it too. Also post it on vets’ pages and lost and found groups’ pages. Create your own Facebook page to share updates and recruit volunteers to post flyers! (i.e.,https://www.facebook.com/LostFoundDogs.MetroDC
and https://www.facebook.com/MSDAlert)

Craigslist: Put an ad on Craigslist in your area and surrounding areas. Be sure to not only post in the Lost & Found section but also in the Pets section. Also check those sections for found pets. Remember that someone may mistakenly identify the breed of pet they found, so check all found pets.

Yard signs: Make and post a yard sign in your yard and on others’ properties with permission. Also post at intersections.

Flyers: Distribute flyers at establishments in your area and post them on telephone poles. Put them out on windshields of cars in parking lots in the area.

Veterinary offices: Post a flyer. Ask them to scan for a microchip (if your pet has one) a pet who comes in meeting that description, if it’s someone whom they don’t know to have had a pet like that. Someone may wrongly claim the pet as their own and say the pet does not have a chip, even though it does.

Shelters: Alert your local shelter(s), including those in surrounding counties. Call shelters every day and ask if they have a pet matching the description. File a lost report with the shelters so they know whom to call if they see a pet matching that description.