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Losing your pet can be a devastating experience. Trying to find your pet can be frustrating and confusing.

A loose dog can cross any township boundary within two hours. Check as many pounds as possible around your community and do it often. Dogs are often stolen, mated, and dumped. A male will reappear in a few weeks, and females after the puppies are weaned. Use the checklist below as soon as possible to aid in locating your pet.

1. Search for your pet. Canvas your neighborhood on foot, by car, during the day and night. Look in garages, yards, basements, closets, under cars, in window wells, under shrubbery, and around neighbors' homes, as well as your own.
2. Call and whistle to your pet. It may be injured, frightened, or trapped and unable to come to you. Hearing your voice may encourage it to answer you.
3. Tell friends, neighbors, kids, baby-sitters, mail carriers, paper carriers, etc. that your pet is missing.
4. Post notices on bulletin boards in stores, churches, libraries, and include the pet's name, description, and photograph. Add your name, address, and phone number. Keep someone by the phone at all times.
5. Advertise in all your local newspapers and watch the "found" columns. Contact breed clubs or breed rescue, if your pet is a purebred. They may have information.
6. Visit the humane societies and impound facilities in person. A phone call may not be enough. The facilities used by many communites in the Twin Cities area and elsewhere in Minnesota are listed here. Each city contracts with an impound facility of its choice and contracts can change without notice. Check with local police or city hall if your community is not listed or the facility listed no longer handles your area. Also check the facilities for the communities that border yours and the other humane facilities listed elsewhere in this directory. Return to look as often as possible. Most pets are only held five days. Stray animals sometimes arrive weeks or months after they disappear.

Loss Prevention Tips: For prevention of sale of recovered strays to a research lab, have your dog tattooed and registered with the appropriate registry (such as National Dog Registry 1-800-NDR-DOGS) or micro-chipped (ask your vet for information). Keep ID tags or licenses on your pet at all times. Keep it confined and walk it on a leash. Train it to always respond to your commands. For information on training your pet, contact one of the training facilities in your area.

Spaying or neutering may make your pet less likely to stray from home or a less attractive target for theft. Please contact your veterinarian.

If you happen to see a dead or wounded dog or animal on the highway, notify the State Highway Patrol.