Find a Paw
Lost pets: how to find a missing dog or cat
Wherever you are in the US, finding a lost pet comes down to the same few things done quickly: search close to home, tell the local shelter, check it in person, and get your pet’s photo in front of as many nearby people as possible. Here is how to do each one, plus local shelter guides for the areas we cover in detail.
Short answer: if your pet is missing, search your immediate area, report to your local animal shelter or animal control, file free reports on Petco Love Lost and Nextdoor, check your microchip registration, and alert the neighbors around where your pet was last seen.
Local lost pet guides
- Metro Atlanta, Georgia: shelter directory for 13 counties
- Atlanta
- Cobb County, GA
- Cherokee County, GA
- Fulton County, GA
- DeKalb County, GA
- Gwinnett County, GA
- Douglas County, GA
- Paulding County, GA
- Fayette County, GA
- Forsyth County, GA
- Henry County, GA
- Bartow County, GA
- Clayton County, GA
- Coweta County, GA
More areas are coming. Our alerts already run anywhere in the US.
Free tools worth using
- Petco Love Lost: free reports with photo matching against thousands of shelters.
- AAHA Universal Pet Microchip Lookup: find which registry your pet’s chip is with, then update your phone number there.
- Nextdoor: post in your neighborhood, and ask neighbors to share.
- Local lost-pet Facebook groups and your shelter’s own online stray list.
- Our free printable lost pet flyer.