|
|
|
Lost a pet ... there is hope
Found a pet?
|
We're sorry your pet is missing. We've been through this twice
personally and know it's probably a terrible time of fear and
desperation for you right now.
You have come to the right place for help and to
find your pet as petsonthenet is New Zealand's
nationwide database for lost and found pets.
And yes many pets are reunited with
their people. Both of our lost cats were found alive and well after
several days. Thousands more NZ pets have been since been found directly
due to petsonthenet.co.nz, or indirectly through
following our online advice. Plus many more just "came
home", spontaneously, so there is definitely hope.
You can do a lot to increase the likelihood of your pet coming home again
soon. Huge numbers of people have told us they followed our advice here in
this section and it worked. So let's get started!
Start with our Find Your Pet
strategy plan and checklist
below. We recommend that you go through it, step by step. The action points are all set out in logical order, so you'll know what to do next. It's great when you're in a tiz and don't know where
to start. And it's handy to print out so you can tick off each action as soon as
you've done (or delegated) it. We'll make sure you don't miss anything important!
Experience
shows there is a greater chance of success when you put your best
effort in during the very early hours and days - rather
than taking a "wait and see" approach.
If you feel your pet was stolen, (it's OK, this is rare!!!) click here
first to see advice from the NZ Police about
stolen pets - they have advice on what to say, and
what not to say in your fliers, ads
etc
Start
here  |
|
|
|
|
|
Find
Your Pet Strategy Plan and Checklist
 Print,
then tick off as you go. |
| Stage
One (Immediately) |
 1) |
Search
your house, garden and your immediate neighbours.
Click here for our house, garden and
immediate neighbour search checklist |
Lost Pet sign (free and very effective!).
This is our real life example, we made it
from two tomato stakes, the side of a
cardboard box and poster paint. Everyone
driving or walking past knew our cat was
missing and where to come if they saw him!
Here's our cat Homer, back home after five days and happily smooching his sign, which now says FOUND!
Click for Homers Success Story
Another Success Story due to signs!
"My boxer pup went missing for approx. two weeks. We put a
large sign on our fence and our baby came home!!!! The people
saw our sign.... A Success Story! - don't give up hope. I did
get the suggestion re: sign on our fence, from
petsonthenet.co.nz
and it worked a treat. Feel free to use our success
story....Belinda"
|
|
2) |
Enter
an instant free lost pet notice on petsonthenet.co.nz right now
Add a
picture to your ad as soon as you can. We recommend a picture as
our statistics show it increases your chances of success by 450%
- there is also free. See our ads on this
site checklist and also our User
Guide for tips to increase the effectiveness of your ad.
|
|
3) |
Search our
"Found
Pets" now.
Then continue
searching later, as often as you like at no cost |
|
4) |
Ring Animal Control
(especially for dogs,
although a few also do cats) |
|
5) |
Ring the SPCA |
|
6) |
Ring all
local vets in your area,
including after hours vets. |
|
7) |
Create
and copy your mail box flyers
(with photo, preferably in colour) to all other neighbours in street and
surrounding streets. Click here to see our sample
flyer and checklist for flyers.
|
|
8) |
Put a lost pet sign up on your
fence and berm
(See right for real life example and a real life success story
due to a sign just like this one). |
Your
notes;
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
|
| Stage
Two |
|
9) |
Flyers
to local shops, dairies and supermarkets (click for our lost
pet flyer checklist so you get all the important information
on all your fliers, first time!)
These flyers really should be in
colour, with a photo and also laminated. Your pet will be far
easier to identify in colour and your laminated flyers will stay up a
lot longer on shop windows and train stations etc then a flimsy paper flyer will. Paper flyers quickly
get dog eared and rip away in the wind. Lamination will protect
your flyer and make sure it serves it purpose whilst it's
needed. It could be weeks, so they need to last.
Click here for your nearest place to get
photocopying and laminating done for your flyers and signs
Loads of our Success Stories
have come from people who attribute their success in finding
their pet to following our checklists, including our Flyer
Checklist |
One of many Flyer Success Stories
'Yes! After 4 long nights Max ventured in at
midnight, letting my partner and I know that he was back - no
worse for wear and with a full belly! Max did a runner at
midnight on Wednesday and on Friday night I put out a whole lot
of flyers in neighbouring letter boxes. I believe some kids
liked my friendly cat but their parents seeing the flyer
"let him go". Barbara."
|
|
10) |
Ads
in local papers.
|
|
NEW |
Is your pet microchipped? If so,
excellent, you are ten steps ahead already. Now is the time to
check that your address and full phone numbers are 100% correct
on the microchipping database/s. Pets may be on various
microchip databases depending on what chip was used and how long
ago the chip was done. You may need to ring your vet to check
which database/s your pet was registered on. For dogs Animal
Control should be able to double check your contact details are
correct.
The microchip database we recommend for cats, dogs etc is the
NZCAR (NZ Companion Animal
Register). If your pet is registered with them, you can
easily double check
your details are correct online. Even if your pet is registered
with another chip database it is worthwhile to register your
chip details with the NZCAR database as it is used by SPCAs and
most vets now. Microchipping for lost pet repatriation only works
when those details are kept up to date.
If not microchipped we strongly recommend you arrange
mircochipping from only $30 when your pet is found and register
your chip on the
NZCAR (NZ Companion Animal
Register). Most pets can be microchipped, not just dogs -
cats, guinea pigs, horses, rabbits, even fish can be
microchipped.
|
| Stage
Three (Subsequent Days) |
|
11) |
Continue to check our
found pets section. |
Stephen from Wellington got really
creative to find his kitten, The Sneak.
He made these tee-shirts, saying
"The Sneak is not dead".
Happily, The Sneak was found safe
and well at the Wellington SPCA
through an ad on petsonthenet.co.nz.
And now Steven has the teeshirt/s
to prove it!
|
|
12) |
Continue to call
SPCA/ Animal Control
regularly - preferably daily, but definitely at least once within
any seven day period. This is because if a shelter such as the
pound or SPCA etc receives your pet, they only have to hold them
for seven days. After seven days, they can rehome your
pet, or even euthanise your pet. So keep checking!!!! |
|
13) |
Continue your
free ad on
petsonthenet.co.nz |
|
14) |
Continue
ads in local papers for as long as you want to. |
|
15) |
See
our Success Stories pages for
hope when you're feeling in need of a boost. Our longest record
was a cat found after 11 months (through petsonthenet.co.nz!),
so please do keep checking and keep your ad on the system. A pet
can be missing for weeks, or even months. Experience with other
cases has shown that you need to continue your ad on
petsonthenet.co.nz (and to check the found pets on
petsonthenet.co.nz) for up to one year.
|
|
16) |
Continue
to drop flyers in your street and
widen out the area you drop flyers into and place posters in.
One of our Success Stories came from the third flyer drop, the
people widened their flyer drop by putting a poster up at the
train station far from their home. That was the one that worked.
A commuter saw it and recognised their cat.
Again the Success Stories give a
myriad of tips of what worked for others, they're well worth
reading.
|
|
17) |
Consider hiring a humane cat trap
for missing cats. You may catch a lot of neighbours cats, but
eventually you could hit the jackpot and catch your own.
Especially if you have a strong feeling they are hanging around
in an area
i.e you moved (and the cat
went back to the old address), or they are a timid cat not
likely to come when called. We have a great
success story about a cat that was badly injured, and was
finally reunited 5 weeks later due to a cat trap and sheer
perseverance . Humane cat
traps may be available for hire in your area from your local
hire shop, SPCA, cat shelter, Animal Control (pound) (or they
may know WHO hires them!). You want the safe and humane catching
type of trap, not a killing type of trap...! Advise neighbours
why you are setting the trap, so they understand it is not cruel
and get their buy in to contact you if the trap has a cat in it.
Obviously you will be checking daily as well...
|
| |
How can petsonthenet.co.nz help?
This free community e- service means you can have a free ad (with a free photo
too!) to
get your message out to a wide audience at no cost. We also compliment and
enhance the effect of your other advertising such
as flyers and newspaper ads too -
just add a cross reference to
petsonthenet.co.nz with the ad number for your lost pet ad.
See our checklist
for newspapers ads for more tips. We'll store a much
more detailed
description and a photo on this site at no cost whatsoever.
To put all this detailed
information and a photo in a newspaper would be
prohibitively expensive - we help you
get more exposure for less. And the
more people that know your pet is missing, the
more chance you have of
finding them.
Time is of the essence.
Put your best effort in now while peoples memories are fresh. You have a
hugely
greater chance of success if you do your flyers and ads as soon as
possible. Don't
wait a week before you decide to do anything. Do what you
can do now; take a sick
(with worry) day or annual leave if possible so
you can really concentrate on your search.
We've got heaps of good ideas that can help you know what do now to find
your pet.
A free ad on this site is a
great place to start.
Wishing you best of luck and that pet is home with again soon,
safe and sound...
with kind purrs
from Kim and Gavin Buchanan
www.petsonthenet.co.nz
NZ's nationwide database for lost and found pets |
| |
|
