We think we live in a high tech society. Perhaps we do. When it comes to keeping your pets at home and helping them come home if they are lost, it is a low tech business.
Good fences. Good gates. Good windows. Good doors. Lots of pets run away when they are left in cars and manage to escape. They are typically lost far from home and away from everything they recognize. Please think 3 times before leaving your pet in an unattended car. It is dangerous in many different ways. You leave the window open so they don't get too hot. A car backfires. You aren't there. The dog wiggles free. Please think it over.
Neuter pets. You have been to the shelters. You have seen what I mean.
Be on guard when you bring a new pet into your home. It changes the balance if you have any other pets.
Add distractions. Rotate toys. Put a chew bone into the diet on occasion.
Add hinges to yard gates so they are always closed.
Take pictures of your pets. Store them digitally if you can (just shoot a roll and have it developed for $6 extra in floppy disk or cd rom form). It will shave hours off getting posters and mailers done if you ever need them.
Update all your pet tags. 2 telephone numbers with area code. At least 1 number that has an answering machine or voice mail. Your street address including city and state. Too many cars and too much mobility these days. Your lost dog can be 30 miles away within 60 minutes, in the hands of a kind stranger who wants to return it. Make it easy.
Try to read the information on the aluminum tag you bought at the engraving machine at the pet store. By now, most of it has worn away. It was not a good idea.
Order a new tag. The best ones are made of steel and slide onto the collar itself. You can also buy a collar with your phone number (including area code) on it. You may think your dog is friendly, but a stranger who is trying to help a frightened and confused stray and may not want to get under its chin to look at a tiny tag. Make it easy. Let them get your number without getting close to the dog's mouth.
I want to repeat this because it is very important. If your dog is lost, it's first line of protection in getting back to you is a collar with a tag that easily identifies where the dog belongs. A street address with city and state is nice, because it means a stranger can bring the dog back to you. When they are off from work. When they have a car. When they have a map. If language isn't a barrier. If they can find your home. 2 telephone numbers with area code mean that once you get the call, timing and transportation are in your hands too. Make it easy.
Will your dog let them get close enough to read the tag? Is the stranger afraid of all dogs? Has the information worn off the tag because you bought the aluminum tag from the machine since it was heart shaped and so cute?
Forget cute when it comes to tags. Steel or heavy plastic tag. Slip on the collar or on a strong link. Information printed on the collar as well so it is easy to read. On the tag, full address with city and state. 2 telephone numbers with area code (never hurts to have a back up).
Last, you can have a pet id implanted between the shoulder blades. Most shelters now have readers. The confusion among competing vendors seems to be quieting down so they are now becoming a practical tool. Shelters that have them read all pets, both living and deceased, that enter the shelter. For a pet that has lost its collar on the way, it is a straight line back to the owner. It's not a bad back up to have, but it will only come into play when the dog arrives at a shelter. That can be many days after it is lost.
I am hopeful that at some point in time, government run shelters will all put their information into a common database, so that registering a lost pet in one shelter will give you a registration throughout the country. It will make searching easier. It will return pets home more quickly. It may well cause the enormous number of pets who are destroyed each year to be rescued instead.
Imagine if someone found a lost dog, looked on the database and found its owner. The days of agonizing wait would be cut short. It is a low tech problem that would be resolved beautifully by a high tech solution. One day.
In the meantime, let's remember that most pets never run away. For those that do, only a tiny percentage fall into harms way. Most are returned to their owners, normally in 24 hours, sometimes with a week.
If you have lost your pet, I hope the information I have provided speeds your beloved pet home to you. And when it is safely back in your arms, you spend a little time helping to educate other owners on how best to avoid the sadness that you have experienced, and the elation that I hope is your joy too.
Source: petfinder.com
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