Finding Lost Pet Checklist: Your Pet is Still Missing After 48 Hours

Finding Lost Pet Checklist:
Your Pet is Still Missing After 48 Hours

If 48 hours has passed and your pet has not returned to you, either coming home on their own or being returned by a person on the street, then something has happened to prevent them from coming home. Many different things could have happened and often times the animal has traveled a long ways from there they were lost. Sometimes animal get chased by other animals, or sometimes they get picked up by a human and get carried away, and other times they get into vehicles like UPS or mail trucks, contractor vehicles or moving vans. Another common way that animal become lost is when an indoor only cat gets out. 

Pets can involuntarily travel out of the area where you have been looking. One common reason is that they have been chased by a loose animal like a dog, another cat or a raccoon. Sometimes someone has picked up your pet and either removed them from the area where the flyers are posted or they are choosing not to respond to flyers or phone calls if they are still in the area where flyers and posters are put up. 

Another way a pet can become lost and instantly be in unfamiliar territory is if an indoor only cat suddenly gets out. It is similar to dropping a human on Mars or in another foreign country. Animals who become lost in this manner don’t have a frame of reference or a familiar home to back track to. They panic and will either hide someplace or they will just run. These animals can be difficult to catch or team or catch up with to while on a search.

When I am on a search with my dogs, we are following the scent of an animal, and the track leaves the area of where the initial search took place, the most common thing I hear from the pet’s person is, “I can’t believe that (my pet) has traveled this far.” Many animals do travel great distances when they are lost. When an animal is lost, like a human, they can easily panic and become very distressed and when this happens they run and run and run, often not accepting and avoiding humans who are friendly and trying to help them. This compounded day after day, causes the animal to travel long distances quite quickly.

Unfortunately, the people looking for the animal don’t expect the animal to have these reactions, and the flyers are not posted beyond the immediate area of more than a couple of blocks. There is a common myth that animals just “hunker down” when lost and hide, waiting for long periods, but that is wrong, and unfortunately, this is where a huge waste of time occurs when searching for the animal, and why animals don’t often get found for weeks. However, if your pet is wearing a collar with current ID tags and a microchip, then their chances increase to be recovered, even if they do travel long distances.

When an animal travels out of their familiar territory, and they become lost, then the situation can turn into a snowball effect. First, the animal starts to panic. Typically a panicked animal will run and avoid contact with anybody, even if a friendly person attempts to help the animal. If an animal runs in panic on a street, there is a higher chance of them being hit by a car. 

Some people will try to help an animal that they see loose on a road. If an animal is willing to accept help from a stranger, then the animal’s chances of recovery increase. If they have the type of personality that is generally friendly and outgoing, these pets will be move prone to approach a stranger for help, or accept help when offered. If your pet is more cautious and wary of strangers, and not willing to accept help from someone they don’t know, your pet’s chances of recovery will decrease, at least in the beginning of the search. I have found that if an animal is lost for an extended period of time, and they become more hungry and tired, they may be willing to approach a stranger or ask for help, which will increase their chances of being returned home.

In addition to an animal becoming lost in their own territory like from their own home, and then traveling and becoming lost and panicked, an animal can also become lost in a totally unfamiliar territory.  For example, if the pet and their people are traveling and the pet escapes somehow, or if these is a car accident while away from home, of if the pet s staying at a friend’s or relative’s house or at a boarding facility and the pet escapes somehow.