Lost and Found Pets Information

Did You Lose Your Pet?

The following are tips for locating your cat or dog if the unthinkable happens:

1. Search by car and on foot.
2. Start searching immediately and don’t give up easily! Animals are found weeks, even months after they’re lost.
3. Search small obscure spots in and around your home, even spaces you think are too small.
4. Comb at least a 20-block area around your home.
5. While searching, call out your pets name loudly and often. Shake a food or treat jar as you call out if that’s how you call them.
6. Contact all animal shelters, animal control agencies, and veterinarians in your area immediately!
7. File a lost report with every animal shelter within a 50-mile radius, as animals can wander far. All stray animals (those with no ID or know owner) are only held for a certain number business days. Make sure you check them regularly because only you can ID your pet!
8. See below for list of Monterey County shelters
9. Search Lost and Found Pets
10. Advertise in local papers and check lost/found ads.
11. Ask the “eyes and ears” of your neighborhood – mail carriers, deliver people, and children.
12. Display a poster with a photo of your pet, offer a reward but don’t state the amount.
13. Hang posters EVERYWHERE throughout a 20-block radius.
14. DON’T GIVE UP!

Did You Find A Lost Pet?

The following are tips for finding a lost pet’s home:

1. Look around for an owner that may be nearby. Ask people around you for any information.
2. Make signs in the area in which you found the lost pet. Include local businesses; the more visible places the better. An owner may be in the area.
3. Call your local animal shelters to file a found report (see Related Articles below). The owner may be looking there and if the shelter is aware that someone has found a lost pet, the owner can be directed in the right place.
4. Check the lost pet ads in your local newspapers.

Monterey County Animal Shelters

Monterey County Animal Services receives cats and dogs from unincorporated Monterey County and the cities of Carmel, Greenfield, and Sand City.  Below is a list of local area shelters, in addition to Monterey County Animal Services, that house stray animals: