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Lost or Found an animal?
Select an option to learn the next steps.

Lost Your Pet?

Learn the next steps to take if your pet is lost, including how to search, notify your community, and use helpful resources to bring them home.

Found a Stray?

Discover what to do when you've found a stray, from locating the owner to checking for identification and exploring safe rehoming solutions.

Found Kittens?

These are the best steps to care for found kittens, including assessing their needs, finding the mother, and determining when to bring them to a shelter.

Lost Pet Next Steps

What to do immediately after your pet goes missing:

Walk the neighborhood: Take a walk around the immediate area and speak to any neighbors, postal service workers, landscapers, or anyone who may have seen your lost pet. You know your pet best, so look in areas that your pet may have been interested in or comfortable hiding in. Most pets are found close to home.

Share their scent: Place a few of your pet’s favorite items near the main entry points to your home- such as outside your front door, on your porch, and near your backyard door. Include familiar items like their bed, blanket, toys, litter box (for cats), or anything else they use regularly. The familiar scents can help guide them back home!

Next Steps:

1. Search for your lost pet on Petco Love Lost. Head to petcolove.org/lost to search the national lost and found database and create a searchable and sharable alert for your missing pet. Upload a photo of your pet, or search by location. Powered by facial recognition technology, Petco Love Lost helps match found animals to reported lost pets nationwide.

Search & Report

2. Register your pet with Petco Love Lost. They will automatically generate a shareable listing and a flyer for your lost pet! Print and hang the flyer in the area where your pet was lost. You can also receive flyers via text message or email.

3. Use the sharing features on Petco Love Lost to distribute your lost pet listing on other social media outlets like Facebook, Craigslist, and Nextdoor.

4. Make sure your pet’s microchip information is updated: If a finder takes your missing pet to be scanned for a microchip, you want to make sure that all the information is correct so that you will be contacted immediately.

5. Call or visit nearby animal shelters and animal control offices to check if your pet has been found. An in-person trip is strongly recommended so you can look for and identify your pet yourself. Many organizations will allow you to file a lost pet report with a photo of your pet and your contact information.

Check Our Shelter!

6. Continue to spread the word about your missing pet. Make sure any posters or flyers made are large and bright, with only relevant information on them. Place the flyers in high traffic areas and in the vicinity of where your lost pet went missing.

7. Don’t give up! Finding a lost pet can take time. Remember to regularly check websites that you have posted your lost pet on, and make updates as needed. New lost and found pets are added regularly to Petco Love Lost and local shelter websites.

Found a Pet?

A lost pet does not immediately need to be taken to a shelter

Walk the neighborhood: Take a walk around the immediate area and speak to any neighbors, postal service workers, landscapers, or anyone who may know where the animal belongs. Most pets are found close to home.

Put up flyers: Create flyers and post them around the neighborhood. This will increase your chances of quickly placing lost pets back with their owners.

Scan the Pet for a Microchip: Take the pet to a local vet clinic, shelter, or pet store to have them scanned for a microchip. If they are microchipped, you will be able to reach out to the owner immediately!

If you found a lost animal in your community, here are some things you can do to give them the best chance for a happy reunion with their family.

Register the found pet on Petco Love Lost

Go to Petco Love Lost the free searchable national database that uses patented image recognition technology and register the found pet.

Utilize social media 

Report the found pet on Pawboost or upload a photo and description on social media platforms that focus on your neighborhood like Lost and Found Pets of Columbia, SC and Nextdoor.com.

Thank you for housing a stray pet!

Found Kittens?

They’re cute, cuddly and desperately in need of your help. Or are they?

During kitten season, it is not uncommon for one to find a litter of kittens outdoors. One might think they are abandoned but sometimes the mother cat can be right around the corner. It’s natural to want to scoop them up and try to care for them yourself or take them to a shelter. Both of those options may place them in more danger. To give newborn kittens the best chance of survival, follow these steps:

1

Leave the kittens alone and watch from at least 30 feet away every few hours for 12–18 hours.

Their mom may just be moving them, searching for food, or hiding nearby. If the kittens are clean, warm, and quiet, she’s likely coming back.
2

Assess the area.

If the kittens are in danger—like in a busy or wet spot—move them to a safer nearby location where their mom can still find them.
3

If the area is safe and mom is around, leave the kittens with her—she’s the best caregiver.

Once the kittens are weaned (around 5–6 weeks) and eating on their own for about 4 weeks (usually 2–3 months old), you can humanely trap, spay/neuter, and return the whole family. TNVR is the most humane way to prevent shelter intake.
4

If mom doesn’t return, step in and keep the kittens warm and dry.

Place them in a box with soft towels and a heat source, like a warm water bottle or heating pad set to LOW. Kittens can’t regulate their body temperature and are more at risk from cold than hunger.
5

If the kittens are dirty, cold, sick, underweight, or dehydrated, take them to Columbia Animal Services

(127 Humane Lane) weekdays from 12–5pm. No appointment needed.

Looking for ways to help? Please consider becoming a foster!

Become a Foster Parent!
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