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People are so distraught or worried when they post that they often neglect to give everyone great information to try to help spread the word and help with more pet and people reunions.

SIX THINGS TO DO RIGHT AWAY TO FIND YOUR LOST DOG OR CAT!

Act fast!  Colorado shelters are, by law, only required to keep lost pets for 5 days. (If overcrowded.. some keep them for less)

SIX WAYS TO HELP YOU GET YOUR PET HOME IN COLORADO!: Whether you have lost a pet or found one, there are high tech & low tech tasks you should do right away

1. PetFBI.org Click this link and fill out the form. This puts your pet in a nationwide database and map, and sends out an email blast plus provides you with a flyer for printing to post in your neighborhood (old school still works!), and one to share online. Colorado Lost & Found pets will be emailed with that information and will be posted to the Facebook page, and added to the 40K strong animal lovers. The posters also have a QR code.
   
2. File a report with the Humane Society/Local Shelter. Some shelters allow this to be done online, but YOU should also go to the shelter. The shelters will often keep a list of animals not for public view. It also gives you a chance to go through their found/lost reports that are not usually online. Contact veterinary clinics in your area. Use their “Lost and Found” bulletin boards.  

Metro Denver Alliance 
Other Colorado Rescues by City

2. ONLINE! On Facebook, watch for your post yourself in your Colorado Lost & Found Pets Album post. Use that SAME file every time you share all over Facebook! This is SO IMPORTANT! The more that one image gets “liked and shared” the more powerful it is. Put that poster on YOUR Facebook page. Your friends might not know you are missing your dog.. Change your top banner and profile photo to your LOST PET Photo!! Have more photos? add them in the comments of your pets album post.  RESPOND to people’s questions and follow up on ALL leads ASAP
Check & register with www.fidofinder.com – www.petharbor.com & PetFBI.org (If you didn’t do this in step 1)

Fido Finder has a $5 fee to upload a photo of your pet which makes your ad much more effective.

ADD YOURSELF TO THE PETHARBOR EMAIL LIST: CHECK AREA SHELTER by going to Petharbor.com  Pet harbor will allow you to search at shelters within a 200-mile radius of your zip code. You can request to get a notification for new pets coming in.

(They also offer a service to send out postcard flyers to a certain zip code for a fee)

3. Next Door! Post your lost or found pet to the lost pets category on Next Door. These are your close neighbors so are most likely to help you find your lost pet.

4. CRAIGSLIST! This is a place a lot of people go to when a pet is lost/found.

Craigslist can be tricky when looking for or post a lost or found pet

WHEN POSTING: Be clear if you have FOUND a dog. Post in Lost and Found OR in Pets, or both. Include a picture. We know there is concern about someone claiming a dog that is not theirs but leaving a picture out makes it tough for the people who are sincerely trying to find their pet. There are other ways to confirm ownership.

WHEN SEARCHING: Some people will post “LOST DOG” when they find a lost dog. The breeds can be wrong — we have seen a cattle dog listed as an American Bulldog before. They can also leave very vague posts– e.g. “I found a dog-call to describe” Same with cats.. you might not even know what “kind” of alley cat you own which is why I wrote this post: Guide to Alley Cats / Mixed Breeds by Color

NOTE: There have been some cases where dogs have been found being rehomed on Craigslist, so please keep an eye on all areas of Craigslist.

5. MICROCHIP! If you have found a pet…Have it Scanned for a Microchip at the local vet, shelter or Petsmart. If you have lost your pet, contact the company as they can often send out an alert (there might be a fee).

There are a few companies that do this. My favorite service is Petlink. They email me every quarter to remind me to update my information and it was a small one-time fee. www.petlink.net Not sure if your pet’s chip is registered? Enter the number here to check: http://www.petmicrochiplookup.org/

Some good insight from someone who lost their pet: “One problem we had that we didn’t know we had: Home Again never put our contact information in their system. When I called to alert them that we had a missing dog, they couldn’t help. I didn’t have the ID number. Check to see that the chip is registered! And make certain the second point of contact has the ID number.” Your Vet can check your chip for you to make sure it’s got the correct information on it.

6. FLYER FLYERS AND MORE FLYERS!!!!! OLD SCHOOL!

MOST Important!!! Post Flyers. Big Flyers. Let people know you are missing your pet. Unfortunately, some people will not call the Humane Society, and may not actively look for you, but if they see a flyer they may think twice about keeping your pet. Additionally, if one person in the family has decided to keep your pet, but someone else sees the sign they might act on getting your pet back. ( Remember, you got flyers in step #1)

Print Color Flyers with LARGE Letters a great Photo and your phone number. Make them easy to read! People will be driving by so if they can’t tell what it is then it’s not going to help you. Put the flyers in a sheet protector upside down and tape the bottom shut with duct tape. That way if Colorado weather happens, your posters won’t be soaked.

Here are a couple of links to help with flyers

Tips for an Effective Dog Poster

Post fliers in a minimum 3-mile radius of where you lost your pet.

Hand out mini flyers (4 to a sheet) with a GOOD photo of the pet & your contact info door to door in your neighborhood. Larger flyers drop by businesses in your area, put up on bulletin boards. Time-consuming but effective. Talk to the delivery people in your area and hand them a small flyer!! Mail Carriers, UPS, FedX, Milk delivery, trash collectors… these people are in your neighborhood on a regular/daily basis…

Check “found” ads and take out a “lost” ad in your local newspaper. Many of them do this for free. 

6. SCENT!!! Dogs and Cats see the world with their noses. If you are missing a pet put something with a familiar scent in the area where they were lost, so they can track the scent and stay nearby. For cats litter boxes are suggested & their beds, for dogs, we recommend a blanket or t-shirt (worn by someone the dog is bonded to). Put these in an area with water, and check back at varying times. If your pet was lost in a larger area, trying strips of a familiar blanket spread as sort of a breadcrumb trail.

WANT TO HELP? Contact the Facebook Page Here
I started the Colorado Lost & Found Pets page on Facebook about 15 years ago and WOW have I learned a bunch along the journey.

Finally, you may be considering keeping or rehoming the pet after searching for the owner. Please read this note about that here:

Don’t give up! Pets can be found months after they’re lost.

WE ALSO SUPPORT AND RECOMMEND THESE COMMUNITY-SPECIFIC PAGES ON FACEBOOK IN COLORADO

• Colorado Lost & Found Pets (All of Colorado but mostly Denver Metro / Boulder )
• Evergreen Conifer Morrison Pine & Bailey CO  Lost & Found Pets
• Colorado Springs Lost Pet Alert
• Weld County 
• Grand Junction
• Mesa County Lost & Found Pets
• Colorado Disaster Flood & Fire Lost & Founds

These are the pages we recommend. There are a few groups throughout Colorado on Facebook, however, Groups are just NOT effective in helping with lost & found pets because they are limited with sharing to only those in the group and there is no way to keep the albums organized. It’s much better to support these large already established and well-run pages than try to start up new ones on your own. Most of us are happy to have you help the admin team.

LOST DOG PHONE APP’S TO CHECK OUT

We want to thank the many people who helped get all this information and methodology together including Marilyn Litt, the National Dog Examiner and the Volunteers from the Colorado Springs Lost Pet Alert who have mentored us and helped create this successful method to help people to be reunited with their pets. 

Lost & Found Pet Facebook Pages across the U.S.

• Alaska (Anchorage area only)
• Arizona – Cats
• Arizona – Dogs
• Arkansas
• Arkansas – Siloam Springs
• Arkansas – Lost & Found Pets ONWA
• Arkansas 2
• Arkansas – Northwest
• California – Dogs
• California – Chino Valley
• California – Inland Empire
• California – Eastvale
• California – East Contra Costa County
• California – Southern
• California – West Contra Costa County
• Colorado – 1
• Colorado- 2
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• District of Columbia (Washington DC)
• Florida
• Florida – Hillsborough County, Tampa
• Georgia
• Hawaii (Oahu area only)
• Illinois – Dogs
• Illinois – Cats
• Iowa
• Maine – Cats
• Maine – Dogs
• Massachusetts Lost Dogs
• Massachusetts Missing Dogs
• Massachusetts – Cape Cod
• Michigan
• Michigan – Grand Rapids
• Michigan: Lost and Found Paws of the U.P.
• Michigan (Southern) and Northern Indiana – Michiana
• Minnesota – Lost Cats
• Minnesota – Lost Dogs
• Mississippi
• Montana
• New Jersey Lost Dogs
• New Jersey Lost & Found Pets
• New Mexico
• New York – Brooklyn
• New York – Finger Lakes
• New York – Hudson Valley
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia (Dogs)
• Virginia (Cats)
• Virginia – Prince William County
• Washington (State)
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin – Lost Dogs
• Wisconsin – Lost Cats
• Lost and Found Pets of the Mid-South

Helpful Pets Information

Guide To Mixed Breed Cats

Applesauce Peanut Butter Dog Treats Recipe

How to Approach a Skittish Dog

This mixed breed alley cat guide is here to help people identify the cat they have found and for the owner to list the correct type of cat on their lost poster. Just yesterday someone posted a notice for a lost calico cat and later sent in the photo which was for sure a grey tabby cat. We’ll start with the most often miscategorized cat varieties.

Torties, Torbies, and Calico

Calico Cats

Calico Cats – are 99.9% female (If there is the rare male it is usually sterile because it is a gene mutation)

A Calico cat has 3 colors that are in distinctive patches throughout the body often with lots of white with splotches of orange and black. Usually, the pattern is not symmetrical.

Tortoiseshell Cats (aka Torties)

Tortoiseshell cats have brindle coats with patches of red, brown or black, chocolate, cream, or cinnamon. Their owners content they have quite a bit of a sassy personality they like to call Tortitude. So if you like a cat that will give you its opinion on everything, this might be the cat for you. They often have a split face. If the base color of a Torbie or Tortie is grey they are called Blue Torbies or Torties if it’s mostly orange they are called Ginger Torbies or Torties.

Part Tortoiseshell part Calico cats are known as “tortico” cats and may display a tortoiseshell pattern on the back and tail and a calico pattern on the belly or legs.

Torbie Cat

A Torbie Cat is a Tortoiseshell Tabby

These cats can also have quite a bit of White on them and can be called a Torbie and White.

There are also combinations of these cats where both Tortoiseshell and Calico combine and they are known as “caliby” cats.

Folklore says Tortoiseshell Cats bring good luck and are sometimes referred to as money cats. The Japanese Maneki Neko figurine is almost always a calico cat.

“Tortitude” – The Unique Personality of Tortoiseshell Cats: Fact or Fiction?

Tabby Cats

Tabby Cats feature distinctive strips, lines, swirling patterns or dots with a WIDE variety of patterns and colors.  The most common mixed-breed tabby cats are: Grey Tabby, Orange Tabby and Brown Tabby. They are not a breed but rather a coloration variation that pops up in almost all breeds of cats.  They often have white markings on their chest and feet.’

Dilute Orange Tabby Cat with White.

Types of Tabby Cats

• Classic Tabby: This pattern has stripes and whorls sometimes ending in a target on the cats side
• Mackerel Tabby: By far the most common pattern Mackerel tabbies have striped rings around their tail and legs, a “necklace” of stripes on the front of their chests, and bands of solid or broken stripes running down the sides of their bodies. They will have a darker color in spots running in two lines across their tummies (called “vest buttons.”)
• Spotted: The Ocicat and the American Bobtail are good examples of the spotted tabby pattern.
• Agouti (Ticked): The Ticked tabby pattern produces hairs with distinct bands of color on them, breaking up the tabby patterning into a salt-and-pepper appearance. Residual ghost striping or “barring” can often be seen on the lower legs, face and belly and sometimes at the tail tip.
• Even cats that appear to be solid colored if you look at them in the sun often have some tabby striping on them.

Maine Coon Cats

The Maine Coon Cat is a variation of Tabby cat characterized by a wider face, larger body, and short tail usually medium to long hair. The photo is an example of a Maine Coon mixed breed cat with white socks and chest. Maine Coons can come in all combinations of colors. Silver, Grey, Orange, All White or Black and White

Tuxedo Cats (Black & White)

Tuxedo Cats – These mostly black cats with white socks, white markings on their chest and sometimes symmetrical or asymmetrical markings on their face are a favorite of ours. They look rather stately and have a very sweet and mellow personality.

Tuxedo cats don’t have to be black and white, these markings can exist with a gray and white or even a Maine Coon cat.

We hope this helps with identifying your cat or a cat you may have found and are looking for the owners of.

Show Shoe Cats

The snowshoe cat is a hybrid of the Siamese and American shorthair breeds that originated in the United States. The name “snowshoe” refers to the cat’s four distinctive white paws. Their markings are always unique and asymetrical. They have blue eyes and asymetrical unique darker markings.

These cats also have some personality traits that are similar to those of a dog. They prefer being near you, usually pick one person to bond deeply with, and don’t like to be left alone. Source

Remember that if you have Lost or Found a cat, many people get these breed/colors wrong so follow up with other questions and go see them in person if other things in the description match your pet.

We found this great video with ideas about the best ways to calm a runaway, stray or scared dog. During a fight or flight type situation like a weather emergency or fire the dog’s senses get shut down and they can’t even smell or recognize you as their owner. The “calming signals” that Missing Pet Partnership founder Kat Albrecht discusses will help you to attract calm and capture a panicked lost or stray dog.

Learn to calm a skittish or shy dog

Some of the tips discussed include not approaching the dog, NOT looking directly at the dog as these are both signs of aggression. Instead, make interesting noises like crinkling food papers like a taco bell bag. Kneel or sit down on the ground to get on the dog’s level and not look so intimidating. Make “nummy nummy” food yummy sounds and pretend to be eating food while casually letting a piece drop and then another..

Don’t move too quickly to “snag” the dog.. be patient.. this might take 20-30 minutes. When the dog gets closer.. throw a piece of food between you.. develop trust. If this is YOUR dog the closer and calmer he gets he might finally be able to recognize your scent and come to you.

If the dog in question is a lab/retriever / friendly wiggly dog then of course most of this won’t be necessary and your job will be made easy.  Your dog will likely be found quite easily and returned but for those with a more sensitive dog, these tips could really help you.

This video is used to train MAR (Missing Animal Response) “pet detective” students through Missing Pet Partnership’s 7-week MAR webinar course.

For more info on pet detective work read Kat’s books “The Lost Pet Chronicles: Adventures of a K-9 Cop Turned Pet Detective” and “Dog Detectives: Train Your Dog to Find Lost Pets“.

 We are so happy that this post has helped so many people and appreciate all the people linking to it. 

Other Recommended Resources & Reading about Rescue Dogs.

Recommended Colorado Animal Organization:

• Animal Action Network
• Colorado Humane Society
• Colorado Veterinary Medical Association
• Denver Dumb Friends League
• Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center
• Urban Wildlife Rescue
• Colorado Unwanted Horse Alliance

Other Pet Organizations

• The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals
• Animal Legal Defense Fund
• The Humane Society of the United States
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Missing Pet Organizations

• Colorado Disaster Wildfire / Flood Lost & Found Pets & Livestock
• Colorado Lost & Found Pets Facebook page
• Missing Pet Network
• PetFBI.org A free service with mapping, automatic poster making, and a large lost pet database. This is a FREE service.
• Missing Mutt Detective– Douglas County Colorado Local.
• How to Find Your Missing Dog or Cat