Sep 30, 2017 | Animals, Austin Lost & Found Pets, Featured
Important steps to take if you’ve lost OR found a pet:
Join Austin Lost and Found Pets Page on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/austinlostandfoundpets/
Search and post there, using the following guidelines…
Include all of the information in the picture that you can.
Search and post on http://www.nextdoor.com and Craigslist in BOTH the Lost and Found – https://austin.craigslist.org/search/laf – AND Pets – https://austin.craigslist.org/search/pet – sections.
If you do not live in the neighborhood where the animal was lost or found, let the admins on Austin Lost and Found Pets Page know. We will find someone that does to create a post on http://www.nextdoor.com for you.
Put up signs in the area – at least cover all of the major intersections within a mile or two and the entrances/exits to your neighborhood.
If you’ve FOUND a pet in Austin, file a “Found Animal Report” with Austin Animal Center online – http://austin.spotreporters.com/reports/new?service_id=5579f05447199e0be4000074 — by calling 311 or via the 311 app immediately.
If someone claims that it’s their pet, make them show proof – vet records, pictures of them WITH their pet, etc. Do not withhold a picture of the found animal from your posts. That’s a HUGE waste of time for everyone involved, as there are hundreds – if not thousands – of missing pets in our area. You can also withhold a unique detail from your post, but ALWAYS put up a picture.
There are plenty of ways for an owner to prove ownership. Make sure your post says you will require proof that it’s their pet. This ALWAYS cuts down on – and often completely eliminates – false claims from people trying to steal other people’s pets to keep, sell or use for dog fighting.
Bring a lost pet flyer to the shelter. 311 does not keep Lost Animal Reports, but they will still let you waste time making one. If the shelter doesn’t find a chip in your pet or the information is not up to date, you will not be contacted by them, so bring them a flyer so they know to be on the lookout.
Take the animal to your nearest vet, 24 hour emergency vet or to one of the Banfield clinics located inside of PetsMart to get it scanned for a microchip – a free service, which can save you a lot of time and the animal’s family a lot of heartache.
Make sure they scan THE ENTIRE BODY!!! Chips often migrate, but many veterinarians and vet techs still don’t know this, so make sure they scan from the tips of the ears to the tip of the tail.
If the chip is unregistered, contact one of the admins on Austin Lost and Found Pets Page. We have found the owners of hundreds of animals with unregistered chips.
If you’ve LOST a pet that’s chipped, call the microchip company immediately to make sure that your chip information is up to date and to let them know that your pet is missing.
You can also register your pet’s chip FOR FREE here: http://www.found.org.
Leave something outside your residence that smells like you. Dirty laundry works best – socks, shirts, blankets, your pet’s bed, etc. – the dirtier, the better. Often, lost pets SMELL their way home.
Check the Austin Animal Center (and other nearby shelters) online and in person daily, if possible. Found animals are only held for 3 days and then they are up for adoption, and many cats are released back to the street where they were found. Checking the shelter every day and understanding the information online may be inaccurate can save you from a lot of heartache. GO SEE FOR YOURSELF!!!
http://www.austintexas.gov/page/view-all-pets
IF YOU’VE LOST A CAT, also check out http://www.missingpetpartnership.org/recovery-tips/lost-cat-behavior/
& http://www.catsinthebag.org.
Austin Lost and Found Pets will do everything we can to help you. Please contact one of our admins if you have any questions or need any assistance.
Thank you and best wishes in your search!
——-
Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Aug 30, 2016 | Austin Lost & Found Pets, Blogs, Featured, Success Stories, Time Sensitive
Today, I said goodbye to Samson, the dog who is the reason why Austin Lost and Found Pets exists to begin with. He was an escape artist, and loved freedom and the open road as much as he loved me. He was 17-1/2, and I would’ve gladly taken another 17-1/2 or more with him if I could.
© Stephanie Martens.
© Stephanie Martens.
We grew up together. He was with me for most of my twenties and all of my thirties. This past Friday was my fortieth birthday. Not many people are blessed with a pet with such longevity. I got lucky. I know.
Today was hard, but it was also good. He slept in my bed again last night, and it was much easier than the night before. He woke me up a few times. I took him into the kitchen to drink water, change his diaper and give him a snack, then we slept again for a few hours each time. I woke up this morning well rested.
© Stephanie Martens.
I took him outside and held him up so he could mark the spot he always marked first in my neighbor’s front yard on every walk, then we hit our yard to make sure that was covered, too. Lots of sniffing. Good stuff.
I bought him a T-bone and cooked it. I cut off the meat so it could cool quickly, and he went straight for the bone before eating the rest. He ate some shrimp tails, too. Surf and turf!
© Stephanie Martens.
We got into bed and I held him one last time. He fell asleep in my arms, legs twitching as he chased something in his dreams, I’d imagine. The alarm went off. It was time to go. I wanted a little bit more time, but knew there would never be enough.
I loaded a dog bed into the car, put him in it and made sure to bring what little was left of the bone he hadn’t finished. I rolled the windows down and he really seemed to enjoy it. He nibbled on that bone right up until his last moments. He never lost his appetite for the finer things, which is fitting, as he’s one of the finest souls I’ve ever encountered.
I cried a lot more than I expected once he was actually gone. I thought I was as ready as I could be, and I probably was. I’m pretty sure I could hear the vet crying in the other room, too. It took me longer than I thought it would to collect myself, but I did.
Saying goodbye to my best friend on my own terms, knowing I did more to take care of him over the past year and a half than many people would have, was a small consolation.
Knowing that continuing to take care of him in his discomfort instead of letting him go would have been selfish at some point was a big motivation. This was easily the hardest decision I’ve ever made. Having my best friend’s life in my hands was brutal. But I think I made the most compassionate choice I could have for him under the circumstances.
© Stephanie Martens.
Because of my love for him and his unquenchable love of world exploration, thousands of animals have been reunited with their families and countless lives have been saved through Austin Lost and Found Pets. He definitely left his mark (pun intended) on the world.
Rest in Peace, Samson.
I’ll always love you.
What a good boy.
“Everyone thinks they have the best dog in the world, and none of them are wrong.” ?
-W.R. Purche
Story and photos © Stephanie Martens.
Aug 3, 2016 | Animals, Austin Lost & Found Pets, Biz, Blogs, Featured, News, Nonprofit, Success Stories, Time Sensitive
Back in 2012, I started a little Facebook group to help me get my dog Samson home if he ever got out again. Ever since, this little area of Facebook where I or anyone else can post to for help finding a lost pet, or for help finding a lost pet’s owner, has grown into something so much bigger.
As of today, Austin Lost and Found Pets is now the primary resource for reuniting missing pets with their families in Austin and the surrounding areas — and an official partner of the Austin.com network. And what an amazing journey it has been!
Losing a pet can be one of the most emotionally exhausting experiences in the world. Beyond providing a forum with a large following to help people that have lost or found pets network socially, we offer hands-on guidance, expert advice, emotional support, and physical assistance searching.
Our street team regularly helps people search for their missing pets, hands out flyers, puts up (and takes down) signs, and traps hard-to-catch animals, often arriving before animal control does. Our team also offers microchip scanning services to people who have found pets but cannot drop by a veterinary clinic, PetsMart, or Austin Animal Center (AAC) to get them scanned. We can even track down the owners of pets with chips that are unregistered or out of date. Our team also scans deceased pets and takes them to AAC so that they are not taken to the dump, in order to give their families an opportunity for closure.
Due to our overwhelming success, AAC partnered with us in January and requested that we become a nonprofit organization, which we did right away. I never planned to become an authority on what to do when a pet is lost or found; it just happened over the four years that I’ve been doing this.
The process of building our group has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever experienced. Although I was the first recipient of the Austin Life Saver Award in July, the real reward for me is the feeling I get when someone’s missing pet makes it home safely.
So far, Austin Lost and Found Pets has kept thousands of animals out of the shelter, which quite literally has saved thousands of animals’ lives, helping AAC continue as the largest no-kill shelter in the U.S. In the process, we have mended thousands of broken hearts.
We are incredibly excited about working with Austin.com to help us spread the word about missing animals, educate the public and continue expanding our network and services. None of our success would be possible without the amazing community we have built together, and I encourage you to join our Facebook group and become a part of our network of animal lovers today.
Featured photo: Wikimedia Commons.
