LOST AND FOUND PETS

Keep your pet safe!  Register your dog with the City before he or she ever gets lost.  If your dog ever does get lost and is found by one of our officers while on patrol, you will be contacted and your beloved pet will be returned to you. Contact the Pet License Dept.

You might also want to try the Montgomery County Animal Shelter next -- or consider registering with Fido Finder; Missing Pet; or Home Again.

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR PET IS LOST:

• Look around the neighborhood. Ask people if they have seen your pet; let them know it is missing.


• Make sure your dog is wearing proper ID tags!


• A current rabies tag will identify the clinic that gave the vaccine who in turn can pull records and identify the owner. Also, an ID tag with the owner's phone number (at the VERY least), address, or name, and possibly the pet's name as well. If space permits, have "REWARD IF FOUND" on the tag.


• Drive around your neighborhood (or wherever the pet was lost) at night. Sometimes lost animals will hide during the day.


• Drive slowly —– your pet may recognize the sound of your car.


• Check all animal shelters in your area in person at least every two days. Keep trying. Your pet may wander (or be kept by someone) for awhile before being turned in.


• Leave a color photo of your pet at the Animal Shelter.


• Have a description of your animal on the back of the picture with a day phone number.


• Post notices in shopping centers, on telephone poles, in vet offices, in pet stores and grooming parlors.


• Using a color photo of your pet will attract attention.


• Put an ad in the paper. Watch “found ads” and respond to any that might possibly be your dog.


• A week of wandering can turn a white poodle into a “gray mixed breed.”
  

LOST DOG

I saw a little dog today,
And oh, that dog was lost;
He risked his anguished puppy life
With every street he crossed.
He shrank away from outstretched hands,
He winced at every hail --
Against the city's bigness he
Looked very small and frail.

Distrust lay in his tortured eyes,
His body shook with fright;
(I wondered when he'd eaten last --
And where he'd slept at night!)
I whistled, and I followed him,
And hoped that he might guess
That all my soul reached out to him,
And offered friendliness!

So many times I have been lost,
And lonely and afraid!
I followed through the crowded streets,
I followed -- and I prayed.
And then the God of little things,
Who knows when sparrows fall,
Put trust into the puppy's heart
And made him heed my call. . . .

Margaret E. Sangster

All the Best Dog Poems