Tips to Find A Missing Pet
The following methods may assist you to find your missing pet.
• View the IMPOUNDED ANIMALS section on this website.
• Call or visit your local pound:
City of Victoria ► Victoria Animal Control Services Ltd.
& Oak Bay POUND & Adoption Centre - 564 David St. 414-0233
Other Municipalities ► C.R.D. Animal Control
POUND - 5401 Pat Bay Hwy. 658-5745
• Call or visit your local animal shelter:
Greater Victoria ► SPCA ANIMAL SHELTER - 3150 Napier Ln 388-7722
The Victoria SPCA do not take in stray or abandoned animals or enforce Animal Control bylaws anymore. They
investigate cruelty complaints and provide shelter for sick, injured & owner surrendered animals. If your animal
was found in a sick or injured state (regardless who found it - VACS, Saanich Pound, CRD or private citizen) it
may be in the care of the SPCA.
• Call your nearest veterinarian office. People who find animals will sometimes take them to a nearby
veterinarian office & drop them off. Central Victoria Veterinary Hospital is open 24 hours a day and is often the
unofficial depository of found animals after business hours.
• Check the Lost & Found classified sections of local newspapers:
Times-Colonist (section #364)
• Check the following websites:
Victoria Adoptables ► www.victoriaadoptables.com check: (lost & found pet notices)
UsedVictoria ► www.usedvictoria.com
Craigslist ► www.victoria.craigslist.ca check: (pets) & (lost + found)
Victoria Lost Pets ► www.victorialostpets.com
• Check for found animal posters in your neighbourhood:
Check your neighbourhood: hydro poles, trees, corner store, veterinarian office
• A thorough search also requires calling the agency that picks up dead animals from local
streets:
City of Victoria ► Street Cleaning Dept. 361-0418
Oak Bay ► Public Works 598-4501
Saanich ► Saanich Pound Officers 475-4321 (police non-emerg line)
Other Areas ► Call CRD Animal Control 478-0624
• Search your home. If you are missing a cat or other small animal - it may not be lost - it might be hiding
somewhere in your residence! Closets, cupboards, hollow furniture, basement rafters, drawers in furniture,
empty luggage, filing cabinets, holes in walls where pipes come through are all potential areas for cats to
explore and sometimes become trapped. We also suggest that you check underneath porches, crawl spaces,
outbuildings and even your rooftop.
• Search your neighbourhood. We recommend you check your area on foot or on bicycle – you will see more,
hear more & have the ability to speak to people more easily. Check local parks, school grounds, corner stores,
beaches etc. Go slow – it produces better results. Try early morning &/or late evening searches. Voices carry
better & your scent may be detected by your pet more easily. Cats are sometimes found hiding in trees, atop
hydro poles or may have been unknowingly closed into a garage or other structure.
DO NOT TRESPASS – ask for permission to look for your pet on private property.
• Design a lost animal poster:
- Keep it simple
- A photo is a must (colour is best)
- Provide a phone number, DO NOT provide your address
- Provide unique details about your pet
- Consider a $ reward
• Distribute a lost animal poster. Although many persons do it – it is unlawful to attach a poster to a hydro
or telephone pole. It is better to hand deliver posters to individual mailboxes rather than rely on a passing
glance at a poster on a pole. Canada Post offers very reasonable rates on householder mailings. The Fort St.
and Yates St. postal stations have full details. Send a copy of your poster to your local pound and shelter
facilities.
• Other Things to Do:
Hang recently worn articles of clothing outside. Your scent may reach the intended target and be a beacon to
guide your pet back home.
Be vigilant. Don't call off your search even if your pet has been missing for several weeks. Occasionally a lost
pet will turn up at the pound months after it went missing.
Cats are sometimes "unknown stowaways" in vehicles and can be transported a considerable distance from
your home. Check all the pounds and shelters, not just your local facility.
• Lost cat behaviour:
Depending on the cat and the circumstance in which it went missing some cats will not respond to their
owner's call for any reason. Your cat could literally be just feet away from you hiding in some obscure spot,
listening to your voice, smelling its favorite food in the bowl that you are carrying, but, it won't a move a muscle
or make a sound. Why? Because the cat's survival instincts are telling it not to. A scared, frightened,
traumatized cat can only focus on one thing . . . survival. The cat's instincts (not wanting to become dinner for
some nearby predator) will prevent it from coming out of its hiding spot. It may stay hidden for weeks and
weeks.
Cats which are usually 'skittish' and reclusive are probably more likely to exhibit lost cat behaviour than a cat
which is ordinarily friendly and social, however, any cat can suffer from this behaviour. A cat with "Lost Cat
Behaviour" may not be easily recognized when it finally comes out of hiding. It will likely be very thin, dirty and
its hair may be heavily matted. Expect severe dehydration, hypothermia, injury, fleas, worms, etc. Your cat may
look very old and very sick.
A hands and knees search of every nook and cranny (strong flashlight recommended) may be the only way to
find this type of cat. If you are not immediately successful, keep trying and be vigilant in your search. Keep
checking your neighbourhood, update your posters, let people know the search is still "on".
• The Pee Trail:
The Pee Trail is a recommended search method developed by Harry Oakes of International K-9 Search and
Rescue Services - www.k9sardog.com
Harry’s advice is as follows: "If your pet has been seen somewhere - try this before you call me to help."
- Have the person who is most bonded with the pet to: urinate into a container and then mix the urine with water. It doesn’t matter the mixture ratio – 10:1 is good.
- Pour the mixture into a spray bottle and then go to the area where the pet was last seen or sighted.
- Spray one squirt of the mixture approximately every 25 - 30 feet about the size of a loonie onto the ground. Spray it from the area where the pet was last sighted going directly back to your residence, or to a nearby residence or business of someone who is willing to assist you capture and secure your missing pet. If it is your pet, he/she will smell your scent trail and possibly follow it back to the residence or other location. If possible, keep the scent trail away from busy roads.
• Prevention
Bylaw regulations require all dogs to be licensed and to wear a licence tag on their collar. Cats are not required
to be licensed, however, they too should wear some type of identification. A phone number written onto a collar
is really all it takes.
Dozens and dozens of pet owners phone the pound every week looking for their missing pet. Too frequently it is
not there. Most owners advise us that their pet wasn't wearing identification.
Unfortunately, when many people find cats/dogs without identification they assume the animal has no owner.
They might knock on a few doors to see if anyone is missing their pet, but too often they take it in and make it
their own with little thought for the pet's real owner. Sadly, your cat/dog may live the rest of its life 3 or 4 blocks
away from your home and you will never see it again.
People who find cats/dogs with identification immediately realize the animal belongs to someone and (more
often than not) will make an effort to return it to its owner or will call Animal Control to pick it up.
99% of the cats that come into the pound have no identification. Very few are reunited with their original owners.
Most are adopted to new owners. (Indoor cats never get lost and are likely to have a longer and healthier life).
50 - 60% of dogs that come in as strays have a collar with identification of some type. However, the tag is often
unreadable, or is untraceable and therefore ownership cannot be determined.
Keep identification and licence tags in good condition and info current. Ensure your pet wears identification at
all times because you never know when or where they are going to go missing.
If your dog is impounded (in the City of Victoria), a $35.00 penalty is added to impoundment fees if you do not
possess a current dog licence.
Tattoos and microchips can also increase the likelihood of having a lost animal returned, but they have their
limitations and are not a fail safe method.
If your pet is missing from the City of Victoria or Municipality of Oak Bay, please send us your
information below. Please include the area your pet went missing from and the date you last
saw your pet:
