If you lose a pet in or near Montgomery County, please be sure to file a report with the county shelter right away. Strays from all over the county and beyond are taken to the shelter every day, by Animal Control as well as members of the public. You should visit the shelter as soon as possible, but if you can't go right away, call them at 240-773-5960 to register your lost report. There are generally waits on the telephone line and if you encounter this you can go to their website at http://www.mchumane.org/ and click on "Lost & Found." You'll see the links to the lost and found forms, and you can email them a photo and it will be clipped to your report. **NOTE** These electronic reports are not collected on holidays or Sundays, and frequently go uncollected for hours during the day, so please be sure to back up your electronic lost report with a phone call on Mondays, during business hours, and non-holidays.**
When they process your lost report they will search the found reports already on file (and the animals at the shelter), and contact you if they have a match. Shelter staff will match your lost report with a found report (or a pet at the shelter) if they can, but you, the owner of the pet, will always be better able to recognize your own pet, so try to visit the shelter as often as you can during the business hours listed on their website.
MCHS holds stray animals for 6 business days and then they are put up for adoption.
VERY IMPORTANT if you lose a pet, you can follow what's at the shelter on a daily basis by going to:
Type in your zip code, click FIND SHELTERS, check Montgomery County Humane Society and click SEARCH. Then click I LOST MY PET and the species (dog, cat, other) and then click SEARCH NOW and you will see a display of all the cats/dogs/others currently at the shelter.
This is a great way to keep track of what's been taken in. Pets found DOA and those at the vet will not appear, so having a lost report and visiting the shelter every few days is very important. Also, Pet Harbor doesn't display the found location, so if you see something you think is your lost pet, make a note of the A# and call the shelter to find out where it was found.
If you live near the DC line, go to: http://www.washhumane.org/lost_found.asp
If you don't find your lost pet within a couple of days, start checking all the area shelters. Some list their strays on Pet Harbor, others you will have to call or visit. Just recently, a dog lost in Bethesda was taken to the shelter in Fairfax County. Most of the DC-area shelters are listed at http://www.metropets.org/YellowPages/Orgs/DC.php and http://www.metropets.org/YellowPages/Orgs/MD.php and http://www.metropets.org/YellowPages/Orgs/VA.php
For other jurisdictions, go to: http://www.delmarweb.com/maryland/petshelters.html
To file and search for other reports online, go to: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/laf/
Post ads with the Post and your local papers, both print and online.
Also, consider posting flyers, talking to your mail and paper carriers, posting on a neighborhood listserv (if you have one) and for more ideas, go to http://www.metropets.org/How2help/losttips.php http://www.hart90.org/GeneralInformation/LostPet.htm http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/finding_a_lost_pet.html
FYI for anyone with a pet, it's always advisable to have your pets microchipped, even those you don't think will ever get loose, so that the shelter can immediately know who owns them should they ever wind up there. If they wear their microchip ID tag, anyone who finds them can also notify the registry and the owners will be called. If you are in the Rockville area, you can make an appointment for microchipping at The Ark Grooming & Pet Supplies store, which is owned and operated by MCHS. http://www.mchumane.org/ark_store.shtml . ]]>