What to do if your dog is lost???? part 1

We never knew what horror, torture and pain it's like to lose a furbaby!  On the early morning of  December 21st that horror became a reality.  She wandered off after being let out and when we went to find her she was gone.......I did NOT sleep, eat and was consumed with grief for 4 solid days.  I cried more than I have in a really long time for my girl.  Just wanted to know that she was okay.  On Christmas night, we got a phone call on our way home from our family's home.  They thought they had seen her.  There was our first sighting!  We rushed home and looked but couldn't find her.  When the boys came home and doing their own searching, she was in front of the fence.  Our girl was HOME!  She is our Christmas Miracle!  The Lord heard our Cries!!!  Lots and lots of them.

I consulted with on many groups, conversations, phone calls and texts with a volunteer pet detective and an on the ground search and rescue person that has dogs for scent and searching.  I have been asked by several to list ideas of what helped to bring our Harley girl home!

1.  TAKE RECENT, CLEAR PHOTOS OF YOUR PETS AND KEEP THEM UPDATED AT ALL TIMES!!!

2.  YOU MUST HAVE THEM MICROCHIPPED!  I was reluctant at first but ALL of our pets are microchipped!  Make sure you REGISTER your chip and make sure you flag the dog/animal as lost/stolen until they are found!

3.  YOU NEED ANIMAL TAGS WITH NAME, ADDRESS, OWNER NAME, PHONE NUMBERS on EVERY animal you have!

TAG TEAM AND HAVE EVERYONE DO A JOB & DIVERSIFY!!

4.  SIGNAGE!  SIGNAGE SIGNAGE!  We had 8x10 photos, laminated.  We took foam core (Dollar tree), stapled yellow cardboard to it and stapled it to steaks.  I gorilla taped it on top of the back to hold it.  Put LOST DOG, REWARD, YOUR PHONE NUMBER.  DO NOT put the reward amount! 
Put these up at EVERY intersection within 2 miles of your home!

5.  Fliers:  Go and hand out fliers to EVERY home within 2 miles of your home! MAKE SURE YOU GO TO EVERY PET STORE IN YOUR AREA!  Check neighborhood.com (the app) for your neighborhood if possible but ours wasn't on there.

6.  GIVE EVERY SCHOOL BUS DRIVER, FEDEX & UPS DRIVER IN YOUR AREA A FLIER.  TAKE THEM TO THE POST OFFICE. PEOPLE TALK........A LOT! TAKE THEM TO THE SCHOOLS!

7.  Notify EVERY source about your lost pet.  The animal shelter, your local groups on fb, online garage sale groups, CRAIGSLIST.  Check for sale on CRAIGSLIST as well and check multiple times of the day!  Harley's photo and information was shared 1500 times over a 2-4 day period! Check the animal shelter EVERY day!  in person!

8.  Email EVERY vet in your county and every county surrounding you.  Give photos, exact descriptions etc.  Give microchip numbers

Next I will detail the profiling part and what to do from home on your own!