Tips to use when searching for your Lost Paws:

Place an ad in your newspaper. Include a complete description including tattooing, micro chipping, collar, license tags, and relatable information about your pet.

Check the ads daily yourself to see if one of the found ones listed may be yours. Check each listing that sounds even "might be, could be" personally, by going to the see for yourself.

Carry a working flashlight with you even in the daytime to look in holes under neighboring houses. Note: Kitties eyes light up when the light from a flashlight makes contact with their eyes in dark places. Little dogs will go under homes to seek refuge. The eyes you see may belong to your lost pet.

Leave no spot or hole un-ventured.

Look for paw marks, feces, and pet fur left behind in area you are searching.

Recheck each place, your pet may be there one of the times you search that spot.

When walking, talk as you go. Your pet might answer or follow your voice.

Shake their pet treat can or bag, whatever you did to get your pets attention at home.

Dogs who are lost may travel up to 10 miles a day. Kitties can travel up to 5 miles each day of being lost, not in a straight line, but in an oval. Your search for him needs to be more than just a few blocks.

In wooded area's, call your pet…listen for a response. Get down low to the ground to hear the response, as it is often a very faint response. Your pet could be just feet away from you, be sure to listen for any added movement sounds to the area you are searching, it might be your pet.

It's been said for so many-many years to place place something belonging to you with his or your scent on it in the area where your pet was lost such as an unwashed pillow, clothing, blanket, or towel. This method is now considered to be of very minimal help due to the fact that once the item become dampened, even very slightly from the air outside, the scent on the item diminishes rapidly, usually within one days time.
Please read on to learn how to leave your scent in the area where your pet is missing that is much more effective and your scent will stay put in the area up to a years period of time even in rain, snow, sleet, and hot weather.
Buy a brand new water spray bottle at your local store. You want to make sure the bottle you use have never had chemicals of any kind in it. If it has been used and you make the mistake of using it, this method will not work for you. That's why I say to buy a brand new one. Place a bit of your urine in the bottle. Your urine contains the strongest home scent available to you. You don't need much of it in the bottle. A little goes a long ways.  Next go to the area where your pet was last sighted and spray a little of the urine about 18 inches off the ground onto items in this area.. such as on the sides of trees, on bushes,, etc in the direction leading to home or back to an area you wish him/her to come to. Don't go along spraying the ground with it. Another animal could come along and spray right over the top of the scent you're leaving behind for your pet to find. That's why I say to spray about 18 inches off the ground. Also, you don't need to spray a steady line... Spray about every 35 feet. . that way your pet can find your scent. . move forward. . begin to lose the scent. . pick it up again. . this keeps him moving towards the direction you want him to go.
If you do not wish to do use this method, and instead the old method, remember to replace your cloth items that contain scent on them every 12 hours for them to be of 'some' help.

Visit your local shelters and pet rescue organizations on a regular basis.
Going each day to your pet shelter will ensure your pet doesn't get adopted out by another family or worse...dies because no one was there to identify him. I want to remind you that only you can really identify your pet. Be sure to leave one of your flyers with each shelter, but do not assume that staff will phone you if your pet should show up at their shelter. However, other people who may have found your pet may see your flyer and give you a call that they may have found your pet. Don't wait to receive a phone call from the shelter; you and your pet may never meet again. It is your responsibility to make sure whether or not your lost pet is there.
Remember the beauty of a pet has nothing to do with whether or not they are destroyed. When their time is up at the shelter…their time is up. Shelters have many pets coming and going daily whether by adoption or otherwise. Kennel space is very limited. Be there to find him, he is depending upon you to do so. Even if a shelter worker says "Yes, we'll call you if your pet should arrive here", do not wait for them to call you…you must take the responsibility and you yourself do the looking. The shelter may be too busy when your pet arrives to have time to make that one call to you, and you and your pet may never be reunited, just due to not going to look for yourself. Your pet depends on you to come look.

If your pet was stolen and you have strong evidence of this, call your local police department to file a stolen pet report. Get right on the phone soon after their disappearance.
Do not let time pass. Pets who are stolen can change hands several times right after they're being stolen, so your quick response is vital to their recovery. A stolen pet may be sold for money for many reasons, even for their fur in making coats, gloves, or leather pet toys. Don't let your pet down by waiting to see if they might come home, act fast in their behalf.

Call your local radio stations.
Many are willing to tell on the air about your lost pet. Some even have a certain time of day they tell about found or missing pets in the area. If the first station you phone doesn't do this…call the next one and the next until you find one that does. You never know, the one that does might already have a "found" listing with your pet on it. And remember to listen daily for the listings on that station. Listen daily to the lost pet listing recorded nightly by the shelters in your area. Even if one "might be", "could be" your pet…follow up on the listing at the shelter. Also remember not to depend on these recorded listings to have you pet listed correctly. Staffing may have listed your pet as different breed mixture than you know him to be.
Also Note: Many shelters nightly listings have a specific amount of minutes they may record the lost and found pets on. This means that if there have been an overwhelming amount of lost/found pets for that day, some pets at times never make it onto the nightly recorded listings, due to this time allotment, and are not carried over to the next days recording. Be sure to visit shelters on a regular basis so see for yourself.

I don't like to have to mention this, but it needs to be said as well…
When you are at the shelter daily, you need to ask whether there have been any deceased pets that have been picked up. It would be sad to find that your pet is deceased, but at least you would know where your pet was. Also ask if there have been any injured ones brought in as well, they will not be out in the public view. You might be wondering, if there has ever been any lost pet recoveries by following this instruction: Yes, I personally recovered a lost pet this way.

Check Every Animal Rescue Group in your area and beyond.
Rescue Groups are wonderful groups of warm hearted, hardworking individuals helping pets who may never find a forever home to be adopted. Bless each of these volunteers' angelic hearts. But, there is one pit fall I have found that could stop the re-uniting of you and your pet should your lost pet reach a rescue group. "Some" do not list the pets that come their way with any of their local Shelters or Animal Control Offices in case there 'might' be the possibility that they are lost pets waiting for their families to find them. One of the pets they have up for adoption might be your own pet. (I do not say these things to discredit Any Rescue Group; they provide such wonderful lifesaving services for pets, and DO SAVE the lives of thousands of pets each year) I have adopted from them myself; they are hardworking, caring individuals.
Check with them often, and provide them with a picture flyer of your pet, "every time" you visit one of them where they are adopting pets out to new loving families. They often set up adoption centers at your local pet food stores. Call each of the rescue units and find out where their adoptions centers are and visit them each time adoption days are to be. You lost pet is depending on you to do this. Don't let them down.

Check online lost and found sites if your town has one.
Libraries will often have computers you may use if you do not have access to one. List your pet along with his/her picture at the online Lost and found. This can be very effective.  

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