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How To Find a Lost Cat and Where To Find a Lost Cat in the Philadelphia area

This is primarily for lost cats, but of course, some of them have dogs as well.
Tips at the top, recommended Internet sites at the bottom.

THE TIP SECTION

STUFF TO DO NEAR YOUR HOUSE - this is HUGE to do. Most important.

POSTERS - All this Internet stuff is great but large obnoxious
Florescent Posters work really, really well.

Your cat has not marked their scent outside, so they can’t smell
their way home. They are totally lost. Especially now that it has
rained and snowed. PUT THEIR LITTER OUTSIDE. Put YOUR scent,
or the scent of their favorite person OUTSIDE. Most don’t roam
too far. There is a good chance they will smell it and be able to
find you.

Make sure your neighbors are aware of your lost pet. Put smaller
version of the poster in their mailboxes - as well as the corner
stores if possible.

If you walk around looking for your cat, look and call for them
when it is very quiet out. That means early or late hours. Be safe
and don’t be dumb - do this with a friend. Assume your animal is
afraid, and move slowly. Remember winter clothes mean they can’t
smell you. So maybe bring a bit of your cats litter or a bit of worn
smelly clothing with you as well, to tip them off that you are
around because your voice might not.

There is no guarantee your animal will make it onto the Internet. It’s
a tool. Once a week (more or less) walk around your shelters - all
of them - including isolation/sick areas - and look at all the animals
yourself. There really is no substitution for this.

And if you are lonely - foster one of those sick animals for a couple
weeks until they get well and can be adopted to their new home.
They will be grateful, and so will you.

SEARCHING tips on individual Internet sites below (if search is available)

As SIMPLE as possible - searches on all these sites are really bad,
you can test it. I would recommend using “cat” as much as possible.
Why? Because people could describe a cat many different ways. For
example, “tuxedo cat” or “black white cat” or sometimes people just
say “black cat” for a “tuxedo cat”. I’ve seen it. Insane. So - just search
for “cat” even if you want to try other variations. I guarantee with “cat”
some will turn up that your “better” descriptions missed.

MINDSET
Get your mindset straight.

Don’t expect your animal to come to you, easily. You will have to work
to get them back. You are the most motivated to get your own cat
home, right? You will have to pay attention to the found animals out
there, and do the work of posting your lost ad. But you can. Just expect
that you will need to put hours in. Basically, this is homework, kids.
But this is homework you really want to do because your friend is
depending on you to save them from the pound.

THE SYSTEM

Expect them to immediately turn into adoptable animals. Many do.
Even if you notified and did all the right things, people don’t pay
attention and most likely staff is overwhelmed. They will try but
they will not remember. Do NOT make the mistake of assuming they
will. They can’t. They are drowning in animals who need homes and
trying to take care of them, and it’s overwhelming. They do the best
they can but they are very outnumbered. But YOU, you are focused on
your one buddy. I’m giving you tools. Use them.

AD posting tips:

VERY IMPORTANT: Most of those sites do not let you post photos
SO - post to www.flickr.com and put the link in your ad.

Images are HUGELY important.This way, I swear people will be
able to help you more. Photos get more attention. They get the
MOST attention. Otherwise, it’s really just noise. We’re all in a
hurry. When I look, I can’t help it - I look at photos most because
these are the people, I think, who want their animal home.
Text descriptions just don’t do the job well.

The text descriptions, however are important for search terms,
even if you do have a photo. So your ad - Put the details first -
colors, pattern, what their ears look like, hair length, nose color,
male, female anything that might help identify your animal and cut
down on the spam. Anything you think someone would use should
they find your animal. Then put your zip code, what town or what
area of Philly you are in - street names too if you want but basically
what town and zip. Think google maps. No way I know your area
that well. I rent, I move and I don’t drive. So do many others. Please
don’t assume we know, safely assume we’re idiots who are also from
out of town, like me. Dumb it down. It’s ok.

Remember that ads expire. Keep them active because your cat can
hide for awhile, or a good samaritan or agency could be slow putting
an ad up or searching. It happens. Many times, I’ll search on all the
sites before I put my found ad up.

Good luck!

Here are the sites:

SEARCH these sites:

Main SPCA’s

Philadelphia SPCA:
http://www.pspca.org/adoption_centers

PAWS Philly
http://www.phillypaws.org/Adopt/default.asp

Delaware County, PA SPCA
http://www.delcospca.org/

Camden County SPCA:
http://www.ccasnj.org/
(it’s only right across the bridge)

Northeast Animal Rescue
http://members.petfinder.com/~PA283/index.html

Womans Humane Society:
http://whspets.rescuegroups.org/

Montgomery County SPCA
http://www.montgomerycountyspca.org/

Bucks County SPCA
http://www.bcspca.org/

Main Line Rescue
http://www.mainlinerescue.com/animals/list

extra:

Adoptapet
http://www.adoptapet.com is sometimes useful, there are a lot
of pets on there. And they also list other shelters in your area.
This list is not everything!

Petfinder www.petfinder.com has animals from many shelters. Too
many animals from shelters and no way to sift through them easily
by color/pattern. It will take some serious time to hunt through here.
Zip code parsing is odd but it eventually comes back to your area
again. No way to skip through the ones you think don’t apply.

Small Cat ONLY Rescues: Little bitty places who rescue cats you
never knew about: These are my go-tos but there are more out there.

Green Street Rescue
http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/PA422.html

City Kitties adopt list
http://www.citykitties.org/adopt/index.html

City Kitties neighborhood classified list http://www.citykitties.org/adopt/neighborhood.html
F
lat Iron wildcats
http://www.flatironwildcats.com/adopt.htm

Feline Pipeline
http://www.felinepipeline.net/

Stray cat blues
http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/straycatblues.html

Cat Angel Network
www.catangel.org

FFUR: The Foundation for Feline Urban Rescue http://www.ffur.org/catlog/index.php/site/catlog/C4/

Catnip Cats (Springfield, PA)
http://www.catnipcats.org/catnipcats/Welcome.html

POST AND SEARCH on these sites or as many of the places
below as you can:

Lostandpound
http://www.lostandpound.com/

Petfinder classified:
http://www.petfinder.com/local.html

Future Best Friend lost/found:
http://www.futurebestfriend.com/lostandfound.html

Craigslist philly lost and found:
http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/laf/

Craigslist philly pets:
http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/pet/

www. tabbytracker.com is just a fyi - not what I would recommend
unless you put a photo b/c they don’t let you put decent info on
there - and even then, blech.

Good luck. I really hope you find your animal. There are lots of
nice people out there who help, if they see your ad, and even if
they don’t. Keep posting be very visible and many times, you
can get your buddy home.

Posted on SHARE Yahoo group - March 4, 2009