"I FOUND A PET!" 1. Call your local County Animal Control/Shelter and ask to have a 'found report' posted. If you border more than one county, please make a report to each county agency. Many private animal shelters and humane societies also have 'found' boards. You can find a listing of private shelters for your area in the yellow pages under 'Humane Societies' and 'Animal Shelters.' 2. Create a 'found report' at PetFBI's website. PetFBI is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping reunite pets with their people through a database on the Internet. Many veterinarians, groomers, animal rescuers, and others, consistently direct people who have lost their pet to this organization's website. 3. Scan the pet for a microchip. A microchip is a small (about the size of a grain of rice) device that is implanted into a pet. This device can be scanned by most veterinarians. The scanner will detect a number that can be traced to the owners through a database. Scanning for a microchip should be FREE at most veterinarian offices. 4. Put up 'found' posters. These should be placed on street poles, in veterinary offices, in pet stores, and in grooming shops. Make a list of the places where you distributed your posters, so it will be easy to go back and take them down once you find the pet's owner. There are a few things to remember when putting up posters: Do not guess a breed. If you say a breed on your poster, people will assume you are positive that is the kind of pet you found. For example, you may think a dog is a Doberman mix because of it's color pattern, but the people are looking for a Rottweiler mix. If you feel you must put a breed, but you are unsure of the breed or breed mix, put a '?' after the breed name. Make sure your sign is readable from a passing car. Make the words 'FOUND,' kind of pet, the size, color, and your phone number very large. Use a silhouette of the pet/breed rather than an actual photograph. Photos do give the personal touch, but are very hard to see from the road. A silhouette is recognizable from a much greater distance. You can get silhouette clipart from the Internet. Google's Image Search: (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=dog+silhouette) is one source, or many clipart packages have such pictures. Leave some information off the poster. This will help you verify the true owners. For example, if the pet was wearing a collar, don't put that information on the poster. When someone calls saying that you have their pet, you can ask if the pet was wearing a collar, what color it is, type, etc. Only the true owner will know this information.