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IV.
HOW TO SEARCH FOR A LOST PET

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Section IV (about 11 printed pages)

Applicable to any U.S. area --  Applicable to some International areas

A. SEARCH BASICS

Read all info posted on this website.


See Section
V when you're ready to simplify your search schedule.

1
. Overwhelming Details? Important: Do not let these details overwhelm you. First, read through all info. Keep an open mind. Get a solid understanding of the wide area around where your pet was lost. If, for example, you live in a city of 300,000 people, you will likely have other cities nearby as well as suburbs. Minneapolis, Minnesota has over 300,000 people; the greater-metro area has over 3 million people in about 176 separate municipalities in our immediate 7-county metro area, all within reasonable distance for search efforts. This document will give you details on how to accomplish necessary search tasks in your own area, whether a large, complex urban area, or rural community.

2. Tough But Not Impossible. The efforts required to find a lost pet make worrying about that lost pet just that much more painful. Still, finding the lost is not impossible. There are many things you can do to find your pet, and most can be done with a modicum of effort.

3. Other Pets. In the meantime, if you have additional pets still at home, be sure to keep them lovingly confined, and provide them with proper current identification. A collar with tags, plus an implanted chip are recommended. Also keep a good, clear photo of each pet, showing the entire body, not just a face shot.

4. The impoundment system. In order to help a lost pet get back home, it is important to understand the impoundment system (animal control) in your area. The information in this document can be applied to almost any impoundment system anywhere ... both in the U.S. and to some greater or lesser extent, other countries. The reason this can be true is because most communities struggle with large numbers of strays ("large" in this context meaning numbers of stray and unwanted animals compared to the numbers of people in a given community and the budget available for animal control). This results in similar problems no matter where the strays are, and because similar things happen to strays, no matter the location.
     This report, then, will attempt to describe these details for you, so that you might make your best effort to get a lost pet back home.
     First, it is suggested that you simply and quickly read through
this document, all pages, to get an idea of what you are up against. Brace yourself, since if it is your pet that is lost, this will not be a comfortable read. Once you have finished reading, sit back, decide what you are and are not capable of doing, and make a plan. The more you do, the better chance of your pet's return. Since there is no way to know exactly what you need to do to be successful, try to not neglect any area, if at all possible.


Reminder 1: Pounds and shelters are required to keep animals only 5 days, although some keep them longer.

Reminder 2: Veterinarians have confirmed that even a small pet can travel indefinitely at 3 miles per hour, so that in 8 hours, your pet could travel 24 miles.

Reminder 3: Some pets can be found quickly, others may take weeks or months to surface. It is important to not give up too soon.


5. How to limit your search labor

a. Plan well.
As you begin your search, you can limit much long-term labor by planning well. Things you can do that will make your search easier down the road include:

b. Keep excellent records. Keep good, controllable lists of places to contact, with their phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses, as well as names of persons you have spoken with. Also keep short notes about your discussions with them.

c. Poster supplies. From the moment you start your search, carry a goodly  supply of posters and bulletin-board cards with you so you can post them immediately whenever needed; as you see posters have been taken down or bulletin boards have been cleared, repost them. If you make a habit of carrying a card or poster or two with you when you go to a grocery store or elsewhere, you won't have to run back to your vehicle or home to get one.


     Poster tips:
1)
There are many sites on the web for automatic poster-making. Simply search "lost pet poster" to find them.

2)
Take a few minutes to search through various sites to find your best poster example and method.
Text on your poster must be large enough to be seen and read from 10' away, from inside a car, in one quick glance. Use large limited wording; use a good clear photo of the entire animal, if possible.
3)
Once you have your poster made up, print it on 11x17" posterboard or cardstock at your local copier center, print shop, office supply store, etc. (they should be able to enlarge it from 8-1/2 x 11" up to 11x17" for you)
4) For outdoor postings, if you cannot afford lamination to protect the poster long-term, tape clear plastic over the entire poster, front and back, with no leakage areas. 
5)
Indoor posters of smaller size may be adequate.
    
Bulletin Board cards. Visit your local grocery store and ask for a supply of bulletin board cards. Six or eight should do. Take the cards home and write your lost pet information on each one. Paste these up on a sheet of printer paper, two across, totaling the six or eight cards on one sheet. Then visit your copier center and make plenty of copies on cardstock. Cut them apart for bulletin board postings.


d. Email. If you use a computer (as opposed to reading this from a printed copy), first of all, email everybody you know with information about your lost pet. Set your email up in poster fashion with your complete contact info. Ask everyone to email everyone they know. Hopefully, this will set in motion a "viral" email campaign designed to get the maximum number of people looking for your lost pet (this may not work in some circumstances, depending on animal, species, area, etc).

As people email you, keep their email addresses in an email mailing list. Also keep a list of email addresses of facilities and businesses you can contact by email on a regular basis.

As you visit agencies, ask for their email address to add to your list, and ask them to add your email address to their email address book to ensure any email you send them down the road will be received.

If you have a good bulk email program available, that can be most helpful. Then once a month or so, send a reminder email to everyone on your list, and ask them to make sure your poster is still on their bulletin board, if appropriate, or simply let them know you are still looking. You may also set up an email notification, whereby you will be notified if your email is opened by the recipient. An unopened email could mean your email got caught in their spam filter.

Set your email up similar to a poster, with a photo of your pet included (keep in mind that some security program setups will not allow your photo to be received, however, so your email should be designed around that problem and should include a clear description of the lost pet).


e. Plan your visits with or without email. Once you have a good, workable email list in order, then you can determine who is not emailable. Those which you cannot send email info and reminders to are the facilities to call or visit, instead.


Reminder
Plan to start collecting names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, website addresses, and chat locations online right at the beginning of your search. With no computer, an alphabetical cardfile with one card per agency in one section and one card per important contact person in a separate section can be helpful to keep everything in easily-accessible order.


B. SEARCH OVERVIEW

1. When you visit a pound or shelter,
make notes about the facility -- how large it is, whether there is a bulletin board, how many and what kinds of intake lists they have, whether they allow access to all areas and what those areas are, and whether there is a particular person there whom you feel you can trust to keep an eye out for your lost pet. If you do not feel you can trust, then flag that facility as one you must visit personally.


NOTE: (this paragraph is repeated in E-2 Intake Lists)
A possible blockade to your search is that you may find that a local agency will not allow you to read through their listings of dogs and cats brought in to the facility. This can be pretty important, since looking through their lists yourself can help you spot errors, note an animal that has already been through the facility that may be yours, locate an animal on the wrong list, etc. Sometimes you will not be allowed to view such lists because an agency (which is not a city pound) may consider the list their private property, not open to the public. But this can also happen because many times such lists exist only on their computer systems. In such a case, you are at the mercy of the agency employee or volunteer to search the list properly, carefully, and adequately. Worse, many facilities keep lists available for only 30 days. If you have lost your pet some time ago and you want to review back listings, and if your pet has already entered and left a facility more than 30 days ago, there will be no way for you to know and no way for you to find out. In such a case, we strongly recommend continuing your search, setting yourself a schedule, a determination of those things you will and will not do, and giving yourself a deadline as to when you will stop searching. Then do the best you can, and if you do not find your pet within that time period, simply accept it. Since many pets are out wandering on their own, or taken in to a temporary home, for some months or even a year or so, please do not give up too soon. There is, in fact, an excellent chance your pet is out there and needs you.

    Some facilities will not allow you to view certain animals. For example, if you are helping a friend by searching for their pet alone, you yourself may not be allowed to see new animals brought in, ill or injured animals, or dangerous animals, whereas the person who lost the pet may be allowed to view them. Private facilities do set some of their own rules, and you and I are obliged to follow them.

2. Recruit helpers whenever you can.
Don't be shy about asking for help. If someone says "no", or doesn't bother doing anything after saying "yes", well, how bad can that be? While you may get plenty of no's, you are bound to get enough yes's, too. Hand out batches of posters or bulletin board cards and ask people to help you keep them posted in grocery stores, etc. Ask the same of people in the area in which your pet was lost.
     Every poster someone else is willing to put up is one more you don't have to worry about. When you go to pounds and shelters ask other visitors whether they come in often, and if they do, give them some posters and ask if they will keep looking at that facility for you and if they'll put some posters up elsewhere, too. Make a note of this on your records ... and if possible, get info so you can keep in touch with them. Ask them to post in their own neighborhood, at work, at the grocery store, etc. Do not rely on any one person though ... ask everyone, in hopes that you will end up with at least one helpful person for each facility.

3. Postings and other help. Ask people wherever you call, wherever you go, if they would put up even a single poster for you in their own neighborhood, office, grocery store, laundry, apartment building. If they'll do more, all the better. Will some of them make phone calls? Search out good email addresses for agencies? List on Craig's List and then keep on top of that ad for you? Often, you will find other pet lovers who will help long-term. Ask children in the area of loss to keep an eye out for your pet; leave a poster with them. Door-knock if possible, and ask neighbors, parents of the kids, apartment managers, store workers, etc. to help, and to put up posters.

     Ask all of these people to ask friends, neighbors, co-workers if they will put up a poster or two wherever they happen to work or live. Be sure to convince them how important distance can be, since most people do not understand how far little pets can get even on their own.

4. Success in Numbers. There is success in numbers. If you can find, say 5 people to help you, and each of those five people can do 5 little things a day every day ... that's not so bad. And with 30 days in a month, we're talking 750 items done every month~! If you can make it even easier by using ongoing email lists in a bulk mail program, then 100 emails a month can be done at the click of your mouse and cut down on the labor significantly. With vets, pet shops, humane shelters, city pounds, etc., you may end up with several hundred on your email list that you should send an email to every other week, or every month or so. Also see Section V for search simplification.

5
. Get printing help. Printing posters and bulletin board cards can be time-consuming and expensive. Some people may not mind making a copy or two for you ... so when you speak with people, hand them a poster and outright ask if they can make more copies to post? Again, the worst they could say is "No". If they say no, ask if they'd take a few more posters from you to post. With anyone who seems willing to do "a lot", keep excellent records so you can keep in touch, keeping a handle on what others might be doing for you. Try to eliminate overlap with their efforts, to cut down on labor.

C. TYPES OF ANIMAL CONTROL
As mentioned earlier, there are different kinds of animal control, with some municipalities having no regulations regarding stray animals, and therefore, no animal control. Most do control the stray animal population. When a municipality does provide some sort of animal control, the type depends on what the larger city, county, or smaller municipality has decided on. (see Section III, item F for comparison details). The choices may include:

1.  Having their own impoundment facility (animal pound) and hiring their own employee animal wardens;

2.  having their own facility, but contracting out to animal control wardens who are not employees;

3. contracting with another facility such as a veterinary office, private kennel, individual animal warden, another city’s pound, or a humane shelter.


4.  When a private animal control warden is contracted with to pick up strays, sometimes that warden decides where to bring the animals; sometimes that may be controlled by the contract; sometimes that private animal warden may contract with several municipalities and may or may not house the animals in the warden's own kennel.

5. Sometimes animal pickup is left to the city police or sheriff’s office; sometimes police or sheriff's office will deliver directly to a facility, sometimes they will call a contracted warden. If state patrol does any animal pickup, then if an animal ends up running on a Federal freeway and needs to be picked up, that would be up to the state patrol or possibly the county. Where the state patrol brings the animal, would depend on what the state has arranged, such as using a county or city impoundment facility or one of the others listed in this section. In rural areas, sheriff’s offices would usually be in charge and responsible in their county, if in fact they pick up strays at all.

 
D. HOW TO FIND POUNDS AND SHELTERS
S
ome pounds or shelters work together in some way to aid strays and unwanted pets, some do not. You must find out who does what.

1. Get city, municipal, and county information from your local phone book, and record the phone number and address of each municipality or county in your search list. In some cases, you may find animal pound information within a city or county listing.

2. Get a good local map which lists all municipalities in your area. Compare this list with your phone book list. The phone book, of course, will list phone numbers; however, you may find that some minor municipalities are missing in the phonebook blue pages listing. Use the local map listing to catch those missing municipalities and then dig around to find their phone numbers.

3. Call every single municipality and county and ask who handles animal control for them and ask for the phone number. Call that phone number to be sure both the number and the information are accurate. For what information to ask for, continue reading all pages of this document.

E. WHERE AND HOW TO SEARCH.

NOTE: Read all details; however, to simplify your search efforts, please refer to  Section V  for an example search schedule.

1. Call and visit all known pounds and shelters
in your area-wide circumstances. "Area-wide" could mean your several-county metro area, or your "greater-county" area if you live in a mostly-rural situation. Keep in mind that city and county borders do not count when it comes to where a pet could go. Either on their own or if transported by someone, your pet can cross city and county boundaries, he can cross rivers, run across bridges, race successfully through traffic into another community. Your review of municipalities should therefore include every municipality listed in your phone book(s) and map(s) for all area codes within the boundaries you have selected for your search.
    
2. Intake lists. Visit every pound and shelter that you can possibly visit. Ask to see their intake lists. No matter what kind of pet you have lost, it is important to search through all lists of animals brought in, if they have more than one list:
a. lists of live cats,
b. list of dead cats,
c. list of live dogs,
d. lists of dead dogs,
e. lists of other live animals,
f.  lists of other dead animals,
g. all list(s) of ill and injured,
h. all lists of dangerous animals.
     Watch for human error.  You may find a cat on the dog list and a dog on the cat list. You may find animals listed with wrong color, wrong breed, wrong gender, wrong size, wrong location, wrong collar, wrong tags, etc. These records are kept by humans, and humans make mistakes. When you visit, ask where the injured and ill are kept and view these animals yourself. Ask where dangerous animals are kept and view them yourself in case your pet is determined to be hostile after the stresses of being lost. If an animal has been brought in and registered on the dead list, and if it could possibly be your pet, ask to see the body for positive ID. It is not uncommon for the dead to be kept in a freezer and picked up for disposal once a week or so. Find out what day(s) this pickup is done so you don't miss any viewings.

NOTE:
A possible blockade to your search is that you may find that a local agency will not allow you to read through their listings of dogs and cats brought in to the facility. This can be pretty important, since looking through their lists yourself can help you spot errors, note an animal that has already been through the facility that may be yours, locate an animal on the wrong list, etc. Sometimes you will not be allowed to view such lists because an agency (which is not a city pound) may consider the list their private property, not open to the public. But this can also happen because many times such lists exist only on their computer systems. In such a case, you are at the mercy of the agency employee or volunteer to search the list properly, carefully, and adequately. Worse, many facilities keep lists available for only 30 days. If you have lost your pet some time ago and you want to review back listings, and if your pet has already entered and left a facility more than 30 days ago, there will be no way for you to know and no way for you to find out. In such a case, we strongly recommend continuing your search, setting yourself a schedule, a determination of those things you will and will not do, and giving yourself a deadline as to when you will stop searching. Then do the best you can, and if you do not find your pet within that time period, simply accept it. Since many pets are out wandering on their own, or taken in to a temporary home, for some months or even a year or so, please do not give up too soon. There is, in fact, an excellent chance your pet is out there and needs you.


     If a facility has no area for ill or injured, ask where they keep them. It's possible that ill and injured pets may be immediately transported to a contracted veterinary office or immediately euthanized by staff. When in the cage area, ask a different employee the same question, in case the front desk employee is new or unaware.


3. Search for lesser-known shelters. To find the lesser-known shelters:

a. Review Yellow Page listings. Some shelters are never listed in the phone book yellow pages because they do not have a physical facility. (Instead, if they are not licensed to operate a kennel, any animals they receive may be cared for in foster homes until adoption). Look under "animal pound", "dog pound", "animal shelter", "humane shelter", "animal rescue", "animal sanctuary", etc.
     Note: Although we do not refer to the last two listed above other than indirectly and as part of our information on "shelters" in general, it is important to know about them for your search purposes. Animal rescue groups are those "shelters" which often do not have their own facilities, which often concentrate on specific breeds or types, and which typically place animals in foster homes until adoption is accomplished. Animal sanctuaries normally take in animals which are not adoptable for one reason or another, such as feral cats. Unless your pet is lost for a very long time, the last one would likely not be helpful in your search. However, one never knows, so if time and energy allow, be sure to check with them, anyway.

b. Watch your local papers. Look through the Pets for Sale area, since some smaller and no-kill shelter contact info may most-easily be found when they are advertising pets for adoption.

c. Surf the web. First look for all pounds and shelters in your state, scan through the list, and then narrow it down to those in your greater-metro or greater-county area. As you work, compare what you find on the web with both your impoundment agency list and your new lesser-known shelter list. This process can be important, since some agencies may be listed incorrectly here or there due to human error, even in your local phone book. You may also find some newer shelters on the web that are not in the phone book. Since there may be many lists on the web, it may be important to search until you've reviewed as many of them as possible. Also note that some may list certain kinds of shelters, and ignore others.


4. Other Important Connections and Tactics

a
. Call all police departments in that same area of municipalities. Likewise, call all sheriff's offices. These agencies may or may not pick up or impound stray animals, but they are often involved in the process. At the very least, when you get information from another source as to who picks up animals in the department's area, police and sheriff's offices can normally verify or disprove the information for you.

b. Call any and all local Highway Department
facilities since they are often responsible for picking up deceased animals on city streets, the sides of freeways and rural routes. In cities, the impoundment facility may also do this.
     Highway Departments typically do not keep records on dead animals picked up, so you must rely on any verbal information you can get from them. Ask them to please put up posters for you anywhere within their facilities that drivers might go ... perhaps coffee rooms, for example.

c. Call Sanitation Departments;
sometimes in addition to local pounds, they would be the next most likely to pick up deceased animals on urban and suburban streets.
     Sanitation departments typically do not keep records on dead animals picked up, so as with Highway Departments, you must rely on any verbal information you can get from them. Ask them to please put up posters for you anywhere within their facilities that drivers might go such as coffee rooms/break rooms.

d. Veterinarians.
Look in your local phone book for all veterinarians in that same area of municipalities. Call each veterinarian; get a Lost poster to each one. On occasion, veterinarians have reported people tossing pets in their door and running, leaving the bewildered animal behind. Or veterinary clients may have seen your pet. In addition, some veterinary clinics double as animal impoundment facilities, so be sure to ask if they do. We have also verified (at least in the past), that some veterinarians may also sell for research. You can determine if this is so in your area by checking the Federal Register of research facilities and suppliers which lists research facilities and suppliers by state. If a supplier is listed by individual's name only, find out with which facility that individual is affiliated. Continue reading for further information.


e. Pet Shops.
Call and/or visit all pet shops and get posters to them.

f. Groomers and trainers.
Call and/or visit all groomers and trainers and get posters to them.

g. Search Lost and found listings.
Search in all of your local papers (both large papers as well as small free local papers); ask your pounds and shelters if they keep lost and found lists and/or a lost and found bulletin board; visit local grocery stores and check their bulletin boards; recruit people to watch for posters for found pets.

h. Place Lost ads
in your local papers, on Craig's list, on grocery store bulletin boards; put up posters as far out from the area of loss as possible -- all over your metro or multi-county area if possible. Recruit others to help in this effort.

i. Try to get public service announcements or human interest news articles in local papers, on TV, and on radio stations. Get on chat sites online and ask people to spread the word.


j. At home (or where the pet was lost, or both), keep easy-access food and shelter available in case the pet gets home when you’re not there or sleeping. Miracles happen, and you need to be ready. If you have a fenced yard, leave the gate(s) open or partly open. Have a garage? Leave a door open a little, and leave a warm shelter inside with plenty of warm bedding, dry food, and water.  No fence, no garage? No dog house or igloo? Place a plastic trash can on its side in a sheltered area near your house or apartment building, with warm bedding -- including a piece of unwashed clothing which you have worn, with your odor on it -- and food inside, opening tipped slightly down to keep water out. As you search your neighborhood, call your pet's name; bring dry food in a dry food bag with you, and shake it to provide a familiar dinner sound (although this can be torture for other hungry strays who might hear you). Kids around? Ask them to please help keep an eye out to make sure the can is not disturbed, the bedding is dry and clean, and to let you know if there is trouble (such as vandalism or theft). Apartment manager object to the trash can? Ask for a suggestion as to where you could safely put the trash can or other protective "container" ... in back next to the building? Up against a tool shed? If you have no luck, and the manager's suggestions are no help, try a next-door neighbor who might be more than happy to oblige. Worst-case scenario, go over the manager's head and ask the building owner. Perhaps they'd allow you to place a "dog igloo" on the property for awhile, even if it's otherwise not allowed.
     Stay safe. Never give out personal information. Never allow anyone to come to your home to deliver "your" pet. Make alternate arrangements for safety.


     CATS TIP: If you have lost a cat, many cats become terrified and go into hiding when out on their own. If you suspect your cat is holed up in a neighborhood garage or other outbuilding, work with the property owner and place a food-baited humane live trap at the site. Monitor it closely. Some cats are adept at these things and can scratch and claw their way out of some supposedly secure traps. In addition, these traps are normally metal wire -- if the cat is trapped in a live trap, there is nowhere to go for comfort, and sitting on metal wire in inclement weather can be damaging, and/or he could suffer terribly if not found shortly after being trapped.
     Once trapped, do not open the trap. Carry the trapped cat home, and release it indoors where it is safe.


k. If you can't do everything, that's ok ... most people can't. But do as much as you can, as many kinds of things as you can, since there's no telling which one item will be the successful one. With posters, bulletin boards, veterinarians, pet shops, groomers, pounds and shelters, police, and municipal facilities ... start close to where the pet was lost, and work out from there. If it gets overwhelming, at least you've covered the closer-in areas.

l. Pets often recognize the sound of a familiar vehicle. Park
 the familiar car where the pet was lost. Run the motor for a short time and honk the horn on occasion. Most lost pets feel hopelessly lost immediately away from their familiar neighborhood; however, since they recognize vehicle sounds, this could help them find home on their own. It is possible your lost pet is terrified and holed up on your block or on the next block, and it's important to do what you can to encourage him to get brave and get home.
     If driving to search, drive out away from the location where the pet was lost, then on the way back to that spot, honk the horn on occasion (don't honk when leaving the area, since that could draw the animal in the wrong direction). With window down, call your pet's name, but do that only on the way back to the spot.
     If the pet was lost away from home, when you have to leave the area see if you can leave food there, and maybe a trash can on its side with bedding in it. That can be tough under some circumstances what with vandals, stray animals, etc, but it can be a successful tactic. Some pets hide and come to the area of loss only after dark and/or when it's quiet, and will need food and shelter upon return. If there is a gas station, convenience store, or friendly neighbor immediately nearby, perhaps they would be helpful and let you work from and leave food and shelter on their property instead of at the exact spot from which the pet was lost.

m. B
e sure to do door-knocking in the neighborhood and put up posters; talk with LOTS of kids, as kids are likely to know more about a frightened pet which is hiding, running loose, or has been taken in by a neighbor than an adult might. Also, there are many people who don't watch the news, don't read the paper, don't pay attention to posters, so door-knocking and working with kids can be most-helpful in getting the word out.

n. Associations. If your pet is purebred or a popular mixed breed, attempt to locate an association in your area which is devoted to that type, such as a Siamese Cat Association or Chihuahua Association, and get posters to them. Such an organization may also be a great place to recruit individual helpers.


5. Research Details

a. Who can sell for research. Individuals, businesses, or government agencies selling for research must have a Federal license to do so. Individuals or small kennels may raise their own animals specifically for research, or they may acquire low-cost or free animals advertised locally (an important reason to never ever advertise a "free pet"). An individual or kennel may also contract with a municipality for animal control, and depending on the contract, may be required to surrender unclaimed pets for research.

b. Government animal control facilities are required by Federal law to surrender animals for research if requested by a research lab, when those animals are not claimed by their owners. Government animal control facilities may include animal pounds operated by large cities, counties, smaller municipalities; police departments, sheriff's departments, etc., and possibly contractors such as individuals, kennels, catteries, veterinarians, and others who may conduct animal control operations for a government entity.
     Some pounds work around the research issue and get by with not surrendering for research. Others prefer to get the extra funds from selling.

c. Private facilities such as humane shelters and no-kill shelters are not required to surrender for research unless they are contracted by a municipality to act as an impoundment agency.
    
d.
When you call any of the above, ask outright if they sell for research and then compare their response to the Federal Register.

e.  Call the Federal offices and get a copy of the Federal Register for research labs. The Register lists research labs, kennels, catteries, veterinarians, animal pounds, and others in your area registered to sell for research. Review it carefully, since we may have missed listing a type of facility. Call each of them (labs and sellers); get a poster to them; keep in touch with them.


F. REWARDS

If you can afford to do so, offer a reward.
However, there are issues that should be considered:

1. If you offer a huge reward, this could encourage not-so-nice people to steal pets hoping to cash in;

2. if you offer no reward, that's ok, but then there's no incentive for people to go out of their way to help, especially if they're not particularly wild about pets;
 
3. if you offer a moderate reward
, that could encourage people to do more than just read about your loss. Use your own good judgment and simply do the best you can;

4. you may choose to offer a reward somewhat higher than the dollar value of your lost pet.
This could make your reward offer more interesting to someone than the money offered by a potential buyer. Keep in mind that if your pet is an un-neutered purebred (or popular mixed-breed) which could be used for breeding purposes, that ups the value of your animal to someone looking to breed and sell the puppies. In such a case, you may want to offer an even higher reward based partly on the number of puppies a pet of your type commonly has in a litter. Tip: Neuter or spay your pets.

5. We suggest you look with kindness at people wanting a reward.
If someone calls you demanding to know how much your reward is, how bad can that be? That caller is your ally, not your enemy. That person who needs the reward money may be an excellent set of eyes watching out for your pet. It is recommended that you treat reward-seekers with compassion and friendliness while yet watching out for your own safety.


G. HOW LONG TO SEARCH

Keep looking as long as humanly possible.
If you plan well and set up a good system, you can do much every month with fairly minimal effort after your initial push. If you can recruit others to help, an amazing amount of work can be accomplished. For example, if you can recruit only 5 caring pet lovers, friends, or family members, and each of those people does just five small things every day, 7 days a week, that comes out to 750 items accomplished every single month. Four short phone calls and a quick stop at a pound or shelter on the way home from work. Five emails. Three phone calls, a poster and a grocery store bulletin board card. These are absolutely doable for many people. Since lost pets sometimes take weeks or months or longer to surface, it's important to keep up the effort and to find good, strong, committed helpers.

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