Our beloved pet is missing, help to find your pet!
Without exaggeration we get 25 calls a week from frantic owners who have lost their dog or cat. These animals are part of the family. In cases where the pet is never found a hollow spot always remains as people suffer from guilt, anxiety and loss of hope if the pet is not found. I find almost no one knows how to go about looking for a lost pet. If you have done any advance work for locating a lost pet you are ahead. a simple matter of turning a fabric collar inside out and writing your phone number complete with area code and address and city on the under side with a permanent marker. While not widely used today, tattoos in ears or under hind leg provide often unnoticed information be sure to look there if you find a pet.
We still tattoo all our cats with a halo in the ear which when seen by Animal Services assures they can be returned to us. Tags bearing your name which are made at local pet stores are helpful but should be kept up to date on addresses and phone numbers. Rabies and city tags are useful only as far as you have supplied information to the veterinarian or service facility where you got your shots and tags. Tracing this can take perhaps 24 hours. It is the law now in El Paso area to have your pet microchipped. The very same microchip can cost from $10 with us to $65 or more with some veterinary facilities and the difference can be in registration. For the $10 we do not register your pet anywhere except with us but we do keep a record of that transaction. If people move or change information it becomes useless. We recommend when someone gets a microchip from us they register it with the city. To do this one must have a current rabies certificate and the microchip number. Be sure someone actually scans your pet at the time of insertion and you check it against the number as an error is as innocent as being on the wrong line to register. This costs $10 to have your pet registered locally and is well worth it. If you register with a national organization which is included in the packet information and varies some in cost but essentially runs about $25 a year to keep up. Some may find this too pricy. A registering agency called 24 Hour Pet Watch I understand registers for around $14.95 category which is a bargain as they are answering their phones with up to date information 24 hours a day. It is always good to remember where your pet was chipped as they might have a record in case of a loss. From time to time check your pet’s microchip with a scanner because microchips can shift in the body and be missed on scanning in emergency or stop working entirely.
When a dog or cat goes missing the faster you move the better the opportunity to find the lost one. Go house to house being sure to talk to children who notice small things going on in the neighborhood. Ask homeowners and UPS men, post people and anyone you see. Dogs can travel miles especially when first free as they find the opportunity overwhelmingly enticing to run and sniff and play until their source of food is not replenished and thirst is over bearing the dog pants and slows down finally sitting in a flower bed or on a street corner totally bewildered and terrified, his owner has become lost. It is nothing he has done. A cat may seek refuge in a garage and be trapped for a few days.
Always file a police report if there is any hint your pet was stolen. If you walk and call and look it is a good thing but does not necessarily mean you will find your pet. People who recognize a pet can die by being struck by a car or fall into unfriendly hands or be attacked by a mean dog or simply be stoned by mean spirited kids who think it is funny to hurt a helpless pet. When it becomes evident you aren’t going to find the pet quickly get posters up as quickly as possible and a photo is a really good idea. To sweeten the deal a reward is helpful and while putting down children miss the dog it does little to assure their return. It is better to list any hint towards older age, spayed or neutered making the dog less valuable to a finder. Immediately go to Animal Services across from Ft. Bliss National Cemetery. Remember to ask to check the sick room for a pet that may have been injured. They might not offer this service otherwise. Pick up a list of agencies which normally take in lost pets.
Some agencies do not accept them and as with ours, we are miles in the county and people drive here to assure a pet has a safe place to stay if we can take them in, these are lucky pets. Other lucky pets are taken in by caring people who search for the owner. In many cases they search in vain and never find an owner who actually threw the dog away hoping for a kind person to find it. However the dog or cat you find or is found is property and Texas law says you have to make a sincere effort to find the ower. Truthfully if a dog comes to us and is abused hair that is tattered and likely has never been clipped, dog is thin and neglected, perhaps covered in ticks and fleas we are not going to look hard for the owner who would be charged with abuse but a dog that is simply dirty, good body weight, healthy looking other than the surface we hold well past the 9 day requirement by law trying to find the owner. The first thing we do with all dogs is to scan to check for a microchip that can be traced and we always check for newspaper ads for lost pets. Unfortunately most newspaper ads list the breed of the dog and anyone finding a dog especially in an area where there are dual languages might not have any idea what the breed mentioned is or have an image of a different look so if you spend money on an ad put the description of the dog, you would be astounded if you saw how many ads do not mention male or female, color, long or short hair, with or without collar when lost, because a collar is often removed so a finder can read information then the dog runs off again. Do not bypass Spanish language papers. Where the dog was lost although good to keep in mind remember a dog can be transported in a vehicle.
We lost a dog once and the finder took it to Ruidoso for the week end then called when he got back while we frantically looked for the missing pet. The dog or cat you find may be the only thing keeping some elderly person going, it is their only friend and companion. If you do everything to find an owner and can prove this eventually the pet can legally become yours. Until then it is a stolen pet. You must make a good faith effort. Be sure to visit Animal Services which should not be confused with the Humane Society as often as possible and do not rely on calling them to check for your pet. This is your job. You can go as late as six I think. 842-1000 and you have to fill out a form which does not assure you they will notice your dog or cat.One woman I know went twice a week pacing the euthanasia dates with her visits for a year.
One day she was so tired she almost did not go but decided to give it a try. When she entered the sick room she noticed a thin almost dead dog who looked up at her and whined. She said “is that you, Donny? Is that you?” and it was. For over a year this dog had evidently been feral, alone on the street and had finally ended up at Animal Control. Dogs which go feral sometimes no longer recognize their name but never forget the scent of home, security and love. We heard of one case where a woman had lost her dog and it had been months and people started telling her of a feral dog about 20 miles away in a small town. She took all her dirty laundry and spaced it around town one evening then early in the morning, returned, there on a bed spread lay her faithful dog, drawn only by the scent of her past pack leader.
People are often careless and when they have expensive dogs like Yorkies that are cute and in demand they let them out in their back yard with only a latched gate between them and a thief. Lock your gate with a pad lock if you value your kids and dogs. When you have workers in your house it is better to board your dog a couple of days than find when they left for the last time they left your gate open and your dog is gone. Whether this was an error or a planned exit you’ll never know. It isn’t smart to do other things as well. If you have acquired a new boy or girl friend it is common for them to dislike the pet but say nothing or little but sometimes become bitter enough to take the pet to have it put down while the frantic owner searches through anguish and tears or they take the pet across town and discard it to where it will never find its way home.
When you take someone into your life if you love your pet you should test the person for tolerance and make a decision on whether something you love deserves the fate of your new found friend’s actions. Also it should be noted annoyed neighbors can kill cats or dogs from flustration of noise, annoyance or anger. Never under estimate the fate of your pet in the hands of someone who has been inconvenienced. Every day at Animal Services at least 28 people stand in line for cat traps. They are fed up with cats pooping in their yard, chasing birds or just walking across the patio. They have a legal right to trap and turn these animals in plus the wandering cat is subject to sickiness. Some years back we had a neighbor who has a beautiful Russian Blue cat and I had a brand new car. Within a week their cat drew other cats into the area and fought on the hood of my car leaving permanent scratch marks on a car less than a month old. I didn’t do anything or say anything but not eveyone is so tolerant. You are responsible for the noise your pet makes and the clutter it causes. I have had people call here complaining about parrots left on the patio all day which can be heard for blocks. I hope these suggestions help bring your pet back to you.
When you first get a dog take a long leash and teach him not to go through the open front door or gate by repeatedly pulling him back and rewarding him for not rushing out. Cats are harder to train. One of the women who does work only with cats in El Paso told me she was checking out at a Walmart buying a lot of cat food and litter. Two of the checkers snickered about her purchase and said “my husband says the only good cat is a dead cat” I think they lost their job but this tells you the inhumane feelings felt right next to us in society. Doing anything to avoid a loss in advance is advisable, little things, take photos of your pet from several angles over the period of years, get close ups. Put information on a tag or collar remembering a collar can be lost or taken off. Microchip your pet and be sure there are people who know to whom that number belongs.
Notify the seller of the original chip which can be established by any veterinarian. Finding who installed the chip is not absolute as we have sold chips and had chips stolen or put in by dishonest techs with no record but over all it is a good system just working out the bugs. Notify your vet and any vet in the neighborhood, Petsmart etc but do not expect much sympathy or help along those lines they hear this daily and it isn’t unknown that vets can feel a dog is stolen but not want to get involved. Post your information on line places like KFox classified etc which are free. There are many networks such as Kijiji and sometimes they link with others such as Petfinders all post lost or founds free so you have nothing to lose. Many people fail to realize a sketchy description of a dog or cat lost can cost them to lose the dog to someone who does not comprehend what they are talking about. Be specific about color and sex, breed is secondary as to many they do not speak the language but want to return a dog but do not know breeds by name. I also tell people that a dog is property and to keep someone’s property is theft. If you woke up and found a Harley in your yard would you think it was now yours? Do not play finders keepers with someone’s emotions and feelings to better your status of ownership. Unless you can prove ownership of the pet it isn’t yours to keep. Which of you has not seen the picture of Christ holding a lamb and the words ‘what good shepherd would not leave his 99 safely in the fold and go looking for the one that was lost?’ Caring people look and suffer, the pet suffers, can you justify your actions by ‘finders keepers’ ? Fortunately for many pet owners another pet owner who loves animal finds, picks them up and searches for you. In doing this they can charge a reasonable fee for food etc although many don’t, agencies usually charge as it is their business and it costs money to feed, clean and take care of any pet. There are other animal control facilities in the area such as Ft. Bliss, check with them.