I've only ever "lost" two pets. The first was an orange and white cat named Daisy that was my very first kitten that was all mine. She ran away one day and because we lived in the middle of the woods in a very rural town there was really no chance that fliers would have brought her back, we assumed she was eaten by a hawk or any number of other creatures that lived in our woods. The second was a hamster I had and he was only lost for a matter of hours after I discovered he'd somehow gotten out of his cage. I later found him running down the way WITH my parents' cats who had apparently decided to be friends with him instead of making him their late night snack!
I've never lost a pet that ran away thankfully. I have had pets given away by my parents when I was younger because I couldn't take care of them, but never just "lost" a pet. I would assume that word of mouth, newspapers, flyers around town and craigslist posts would be the most helpful to find a lost pet.
We lost our dog once and I'm convinced it was kidnapped. We put up an hundred dollar reward and the dog finders called within 2 hours. They said they really liked our dog and wanted $200. We should have called the police but was afraid we wouldn't get Charmaine back so agreed. When the guys showed up with the dog, (we met them in a parking lot), we said we only had $150 and please give us the dog. We got her back for the $150, but it was a learning experience.
I remember once when one of our dogs ran off and we didn't know where he was. We spent a good portion of the day looking for him. Fortunately one of our neighbors spotted him in a nearby yard, safe and sound. From that point on we kept him penned up in our back yard where the fences were higher.
10-31-2012, 12:49 PM, (This post was last modified: 10-31-2012, 12:50 PM by sandooch.)
I lost a few cats and one puppy to coyotes that lived in the hills in back of our old house. They would get so hungry at night that they would actually jump our gate and snatched the puppy, carrying him over the fence. It was actually my brother's puppy, and I remember him crying for a week about the loss of that sweet pup. So sad.
The only other cat I lost was an indoor/outdoor cat. She was mean and tough, so I don't think anyone would have just taken her. She didn't let anyone but us pet her. We searched our nearest humane society for a couple weeks but she was never turned in. I never knew what happened to her.
These days we keep all our pets inside the house. I'm too afraid of cars, dogs and people who just steal other people's pets to let them outside.
11-08-2012, 05:42 AM, (This post was last modified: 11-08-2012, 05:45 AM by Ram.)
I have had my fair share of lost pets. All of them took place when I was a kid. A pet turtle magically escaped and was gone for good. A few years later I saw a turtle at neighbor's and I thought it looked just like mine, but I didn't ask. A pair of parakeets opened the cage exit with their mouths and escaped overnight, or perhaps in the morning. They were never found.
My family only attempted to look for them in the neighborhood, and we did nothing more.
We have also had two parakeets flew into our home on two separated occasions in the past during the time I had my second pair of parakeets. So I ended up having total 4. O_O There was no way to find out their real owner. We only knew our nearby neighbors didn't have birds, so they must be from somewhere farther.
We nearly lost choco one day.. she ran away with the kids to play and seeing her caretaker went away with him to his home. The children were so upset that she was lost and there was a huge drama on.. I was running around the whole neighborhood searching for her...and saw her caretaker bringing her back with him.. LOL. It was a short while before we found her but it was quite traumatic.. I can understand how people feel when they lose their pets. It was such a problem trying to calm down the kids.
We lost a lost guinea pig once or rather we found out where it was located but couldn't reach it to rescue it. We had to call for professional help to rescue our baby guinea pig.
We kept our guinea pigs in the basement and the female had babies. One of them escaped. We heard this squealing in the house, realized it was one of the babies but couldn't figure out where it came from. It seemed to come from all directions. Finally, we discovered one of the baby guinea pigs on the floor of the furnace. His squealing could be heard through all the vents in the house. The gas light and the heat was up off the floor and so, it wasn't in any danger of being burned or overheated from the furnace. But it got itself trapped behind the fan blades that were just above the floor of the furnace.
We could not reach it to get it out, as it was in the far back corner. So, my mom called our furnace repairman. The phone receptionist took the call. We waited for several hours and no one came. My mom called back and said that a live animal, a guinea pig, was trapped in the furnace and that is indeed an emergency call. The phone receptionist apologized. She thought it was a prank call and did not forward it to the repair man. Thus, was the reason he never showed up. After the second call, he showed up within the hour and was able to rescue our frightened baby guinea pig.
I have never lost a pet myself but I had a friend who lost both kittens who wandered off. She put up flyers and posted to a local email list. No results from that. One cat returned on its own one day and then about a week later I was going to see her and the second cat came meowing up the steps so I was able to walk in the door carrying the truant in my arms!
That was a sweet moment.
Unfortunately my friend continued to be rather lax in keeping her cats from wandering and they both wandered off again and were not recovered. Made me sad. I wish I could have adopted them! but at the time I was not free to do that.
When I was younger, we had a guinea pig named Snowy (which was odd that we named her that, since she was mostly brown with white markings xD We were kids, and liked the name) who was excellent at getting out of her cage. We kept her in the playroom that my sister and I shared, and we always tried to close the door when we left the room just because we knew that no matter what we did, she would somehow get out and be scurrying around whenever we came back into the room. One time, we left the door open while we went to school. When we came back, we realized our mistake and rushed to the room. My cat was standing guard over the guinea pig, keeping her from escaping! The cat didn't hurt Snowy or anything, just stood there making sure she didn't get near the door. It was pretty funny, and our cat got major pets and cuddles as a reward
I had never lost a pet but if by some chance I did I would probably not be able to stop crying for a while. I feel that I would probably go to every neighbors house and ask if they had seen my pet. I would then go to the police and the animal shelter to notify every possible person so that they are aware of the situation. Flyers are something I would definitely put up as well! I am very sorry for all that have had this misfortune happen to them but remember to be strong and that everything will be alright. I wish you all the best!
