Author: Jennifer

A new scientific study of pet owners published recently reveals some interesting statistics about pet owners and pets that get lost. This was the first study of its kind! The study gathered data about the frequency of pets getting lost from their homes, what percentages of pets were recovered… and perhaps most importantly, revealed what methods owners used most often to successfully find a lost dog or cat. What were those methods? You can download and read the full survey here, or read on for our summary of the results!

Image courtesy of adamr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The study used: “a cross-sectional national random digit dial telephone interview” to make 6,996 calls to find 1,015 households that owned a dog or cat within the past five years who were willing to participate in the survey. In the surveyed households, 14% of dogs and 15% of cats were lost at least once in the past five years. Of those lost pets, 93% of dogs and 75% of cats were found – meaning 7% percent of dogs and 25% of cats were never found.  (If you do some math, knowing that there are 86.4 million cats and 78.2 million dogs owned in the US, you can see how many lost owned pets — not abandoned ones — make up the 5 to 7 million pets that end up in shelters each year!)

So how did those the found dogs and cats get home?

For dogs, 49% were found by searching their neighborhood. For cats, 30% were found by searching the neighborhood, while 59% returned on their own. (Note: that means 41% did not return on their own, so just waiting for your lost cat to return home is not a good plan!)

ID tags or microchips were responsible for 15% of dogs getting home.

Two thirds of the lost cats who were not found did not have any identification, and so it makes sense that only one cat owner reported that the tag or chip was the primary way the cat was returned home. If as many cats were wearing ID or chipped as dogs… perhaps 15% would also be reunited with their owners too.

What about finding your lost pet at a shelter? “Of the 110 dogs and 74 cats that had been reported as becoming lost, only nine (seven dogs and two cats) were found at animal control or through law enforcement.” But… “Of the cat owners who did not recover their cats (18 out of 74), only four searched at the shelter. Since the majority of cat owners that lose and do not recover their cat did not search at the animal shelter, there is likely an opportunity to increase messaging regarding this option as a search method for cat owners. Since 25% of lost cats were not found, other methods of reuniting cats and their owners are needed.”

We recommend cat owners search the shelters, microchip and tag your cats! Along with the other tips we suggest in our find your lost cat article here.

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Start your day with a happy adoption smile! Here’s a story sent to us from an adopter who used Adopt-a-Pet.com’s free Search Saver email service to find their new furry friend! (Want to help spread the joy of pet adoption by sharing your happy beginnings story with our readers? Email your adopted pet story and photo to info@cms.adoptapet.com.) Here’s the email we received heartwarming photos from Bruce: “Hi Adopt-a-Pet.com, We lost our male Cairn Terrier about a year ago and waited to start looking for a new one and decided we should get a female. He was the “boss” over Ivan and Buddy, so I signed up for the search notification. When I got the email I forwarded it to my wife and we decided to go for her. As it turns out she looks very much like a female Cairn-mix we had for many years.  Mandy has a great personality and she has been actively exploring all over the house. She has had a few accidents but has been quick to learn what “going outside” means. When the boys head for the door, she is right there with them. She is enjoying all the toys the boys have to chew on and play with and has made a route through the rooms that she tears around at full speed daring the guys to catch her. Very funny to watch. I was impressed with the care taken by your folks for the animals and the follow-ups to make sure all was well. We are happy with Mandy and the adoption process. BTW – Both Ivan and Buddy are also adopted; Ivan at 6 months from PetSmart and I got Buddy at 3 months when I worked in Greece. He became a Texan in 2009 when he was 6 years old. Regards, Bruce.”

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Did you know many shelters and rescues will not adopt out black cats before Halloween, some even banning black cat adoptions for the entire month of October? These homeless cat organizations believe that black cats are the most likely target of Satanic rituals that take place around Halloween, and feel it is more humane to limit black cat adoptions than risk that type of horrible end.  Are they believing made-up horror stories, or are there facts fueling the fears?  How do shelters and rescues that do allow black cat adoptions ensure their black cats are being adopted by loving homes where they will be safe?

The fact is, sadly, animals are killed in rituals in almost every community in the US. I worked at an animal control agency for 10 years where I heard first-hand accounts from animal control officers who were called to investigate ritually killed and discarded animals of all kinds. This was in a suburban area of Los Angeles! Just like other types of animal cruelty, it can happen anywhere. When I first started working at this shelter, they would not adopt out black cats for the entire month of October, telling adopters to come back after November 1st. Unfortunately, the limitation on an easy supply of black cats did not slow down the (rare but ongoing) animal sacrifices. The criminals simply switched to other colors and types of animals they could obtain for free. So the shelter adjusted their black cat policy to allow people to adopt black cats at any time – with the condition that if they adopted them in the few weeks prior to Halloween, they could not pick them up until after October 31st.

In speaking to and listening to shelters and rescues around the country talk about the challenges of adopting out black cats near Halloween, I’ve learned almost every shelter and every rescue handles the situation differently, depending on what they feel works best for their facility and their community. Fortunately  the shelter where I worked had the resources (space & staff time) to be able to set aside black cats adopted in October without negatively impacting the lives of other cats in their care, while trying to keep them healthy and happy during their wait. Other shelters are not so fortunate in their resources, and it is a tough balancing act weighing the welfare of all the cats in their care and once they are adopted out into the community.

What can you do to keep your cat safe, and help black cats in general?

1. Help bust the myths! One of the most pervasive untrue myths is that black cats are bad luck… actually in England, if a black cat crosses your path, that is considered a GOOD omen!
2. Help black cats be adopted because black cats are least likely color of cat  to be adopted from a shelters. Especially in darker cages, they are easy for a human’s eyes to pass over. But black cats can be just as wonderful as any color cat! There are even some studies that have found that cats of a particular color often share similar personality traits. Black cats are very likely to be social, gentle, smart, play-loving feline friends. (Living proof: my darling foster cat in the photo above.) Their elegance is undeniable – they are always ‘dressed’ for a fabulous formal party, often with a pair of sparkling emerald or golden jewel eyes as the perfect accessories. Beautiful!
3. Black cats, just like any cat, are not a decoration. Some shelters who lift their black cat adoption ban find they run into another problem: black cats adopted and then returned after Halloween.
4. Keep ALL cats and other pets safely inside your home, especially the weeks before Halloween.

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We were very honored to be the recipient of not just one, but two awards at The Stray Cat Club charity gala in Beverly Hills this weekend! While we believe the staff, volunteers, and donors who make animal rescue possible are heroes that deserve awards every day, we were filled with gratitude when an organization that works so hard through their extraordinary contributions to end the feral cat crisis in Los Angeles county chose Adopt-a-Pet.com to accept these awards. The first award was from The Stray Cat Alliance themselves, a beautiful engraved plaque that you see at right. It says “The Stray Cat Alliance Is Proud To Honor Adopt-A-Pet.com For Your Extraordinary Dedication To The Well-Being Of All Animals.” How cool is that? Christi Metropol the founder of The Stray Cat Alliance presented the award on stage to me which I accepted on behalf of all of us at Adopt-a-Pet.com, in front of hundreds of animal welfare supporters. The second award was a surprise! I’d already stepped down off the stage (and my pounding heart was just returning to normal) when I heard our name called again! This time it was by Councilmember Paul Koretz, who presented Adopt-a-Pet.com with a Certificate of Recognition from the City of Los Angeles and the State of California. What a proud  moment!

The gala was a fundraising event for The Stray Cat Alliance, with what must have been over 200 silent auction prizes that people could bid for online as well as at the event. They did a live auction too, and a call out for donations, which raised over $30,000 in a few minutes! All these funds will go into the spay and neuter programs The Stray Cat Alliance runs in targeted areas of Los Angeles, providing free surgeries and medical care for any cat, stray, feral, or owned. Los Angeles has a huge cat care crisis and is very fortunate to have organizations like The Stray Cat Alliance working so hard to provide the care Los Angeles’s cats need.

Adding some lighthearted fun to the event was that it was costumes optional! Of course I went as a cat, and who did I get to meet but the Cat Daddy himself, Jackson Galaxy. (Photo below.) Fortunately, I was well behaved so they didn’t need to call on his cat whispering super powers, but it was great to see him and so many other cat welfare advocates out supporting such a great cause.

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Here’s a little story to put a smile on your face, because who doesn’t love reading happy adoption stories? (You can email us yours with photos to info@cms.adoptapet.com too!) Today’s Happy Beginnings happy adoption story just a very short note. We usually love hearing all the details about the pet’s personality, the adoption experience, and all the other juicy details. But sometimes there is an exception, and when they say a photo is worth a thousand words, they must have been thinking about Diamond’s three happy adoption photos! His adopter writes: “Thanks to Adopt-a-Pet.com, I found Diamond at the Barc Shelter in June. She has a wonderful home and we love each other equally unconditionally. We take a long walk every day and short walks in between. She loves to go to the beach and jump the waves and run and loves her baths afterwards. She is a wonderful little companion and she is happy… and I am happier! Thank you for bringing Diamond to me, Suzanne.” See Diamond’s other two photos below. Thank you Suzanne, for adopting a pet, and sharing your story!

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Dim the lights, put on some relaxing spa music, light the peanut butter scented candles… you’re on the right path to give your dog a wonderful relaxing and rejuvenating massage! Just like the scent of your candles would be different to appeal to your pooch, so should your massage technique. Dogs are often very stoic creatures, and especially if it is their beloved owner, they will not react or let you know if you are massaging too hard. This is just one tip I learned from a certified professional canine massage therapist who is helping my senior dog feel as good as she possibly can in her golden years. We’ve had wonderful success with acupuncture helping her arthritis and other issues, but after one really amazing squirrel chase resulted in serious injury (of my dog, the squirrel is fine of course), we needed something more. Part of that “more” is massage. While I can’t safely teach you how to give your dog an injury rehabbing massage in a single blog article, what I can do is explain how to give a simple, gentle, and safe massage to a non-injured pet. Gentle massage can have wonderful benefits for both physically for the dog being massaged, and when done by a caring owner or foster parent, can be an enjoyable way of strengthening the bond between human and canine.

Note: This is a gentle massage technique for healthy, non-injured dogs to promote bonding and relieve stress. This should only be done on a dog you know well.

1. Pick a time of day when your pet is most relaxed. For some pets this is after their morning walk, during a mid-day snooze, or at the end of the day before bed.
2. Ask them to lie down in a comfortable, quiet place. If they don’t want to lie down, sitting or standing is fine too, though lying down is best.
3. Start petting them in their favorite spot to be pet. Most dogs prefer their chest, neck, or back. The petting should be slow and soothing, so each stroke of the pet ise a full second. You can count in your head to get the hang of it, saying “one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi.”  Count to ten.
4. The strength or pressure of your stroke should be the same gentleness you use for regular petting – NOT the strong pressure used in a human massage. You can do more harm than good with too much pressure.
5. Move to their second favorite spot, then their third. As they relax, you can try the petting massage on other spots too, like their ears, between their eyes (with your finger tips), their thighs, the sides of their chest.
6. You can cycle through all the spots they enjoyed as long as you both are enjoying it! You can also alternate the petting strokes with small circles using the tips of your fingers.

If your dog wants to move away or shows any other sign of not enjoying the massage petting at any time, you of course should let him or her move away and stop. You can try again another day. Most pets enjoy this kind of “petting massage,” but some don’t, so be respectful of your pet’s desires. For those that enjoy it, but not for long, you can build up the length of your massage sessions slowly. The goal is a relaxed and happy pet!

To get the full benefits of massage, such as increased circulation, decreased muscle pain, enhanced flexibility, and improved autoimmune response, have your dog massaged by a certified canine massage therapist, or have on safely teach you the proper technique on your dog. You can ask your vet for a recommendation to a certified doggie masseuse near you.

Start your Monday with a big smile! Here’s a happy adoption story sent to us from an adopter who used Adopt-a-Pet.com to find their new furry friend! (Want to help spread the joy of pet adoption by sharing your happy beginnings story with our readers? Email your adopted pet story and photo to info@cms.adoptapet.com.) Here’s an email we received with a great photo from Mary: “Hello folks at Adopt-a-Pet.com,  Here is a little fellow that I found on Adopt-a-Pet.com or better said, you found him for me.  He was shown as “Bravehart”, a Scottish Terrier  found in a kill shelter in Tennessee and rescued by Helping Animals Rescue Team from Franklin, NJ.  He had been neglected and was not in the best of health.  After a visit with my vet, an abscessed tooth extraction, antibiotics, and worming medication he is in tip-top health again.  He is now known as Rory and is enjoying his life in his own home and nice fenced-in yard in the country that he shares with his “sister” Zoey the Cairn Terrier.  He is a very lovable little guy, who wants to be in my company all the time.   He loves his yard, and sits outside and watches the people across the street come and go, and chases the squirrels out of his yard!!  He is a great addition to my home and he puts a smile on my face every day. Sincerely,  Mary from Massachusetts”

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Did you know that only 2 % of cat owners found their lost pets at shelters? That stomach-wrenching statistic was revealed in a recent issue of the journal Animals, which published the results of a survey of 1,015 pet households over a five-year period. So where do people find their lost cats? Read on to find out what I learned from our recent first-hand experience with cat finding experts!

When an indoor cat gets outside unintentionally, they are very easily spooked by “normal” outside things like cars, dogs walking by, or even people. But unlike dogs who tend to run when scared, cats are much more likely to find the first hiding place they can and hole up, sometimes for days in a row. So while having your cats microchipped and wearing an ID tag is super important, as is keeping your registered contact information accurately up-to-date, there are important actions you can take once your pet is lost that will increase the chances of your missing cat being found.

So in addition to following the advice in our comprehensive Lost Pet Guide (click here), here are some additional tips for finding a lost cat that has going missing outside:

1. If you can afford to hire a pet detective, and have one in your area, the good ones are worth their weight in gold for their experience. Ask for references, and hire them sooner if you can, before the trail grows cold. You can also consider a local phone calling service like FindToto.com
2. If possible and safe to do so, close your pets in other rooms of your home, and put their litter box right outside your front or back door (cats can smell great distances and they can recognize their scent) and leave the cracked open enough so your cat can squeeze inside late at night, when cats are more likely to be on the move.
3. If you live in a suburban or urban environment: Put a LOST CAT flyer with a photo on every one of your neighbor’s doorsteps, and on their car windshields. Walk around at times when dog owners may be out walking their dogs, hand them a flyer, ask them if they’ve seen your pet, explain how heartbroken you are. The more people that are helping look for your cat, the better chances you are of getting a “sighting” and being able to set a humane trap in that area and catch your cat. This is what worked for Lil C in the poster above, after weeks of searching for her she was trapped inside of a neighbor’s carport just a few houses down from where she escaped.
4. The next day, knock on neighbor’s doors and ask if they have seen your cat, hand them another flyer, and ask if you can look in their garage. (Them looking is not the same thing, as the cat will likely not come out for them.)
5. Set up a cat feeding spot outside your home: a plastic bowl with some of your cat’s favorite food works well. Refresh daily, you can set it in a pie plate of water if ants are an issue. Ask neighbors if they can do the same.  If you notice the food is being touched at all, move the food into a humane cat trap and set it for a few hours each late night. Only set the trap while you can directly monitor it, i.e. you are sitting nearby listening, or watching from your home with a clear view of the trap. Never leave a trap unwatched, even for a few minutes. Sadly, there are cases of mentally ill people who think pouring gasoline and lighting cats in cages on fire is fun. Also, opossums and other wildlife can fatally injure themselves trying to get out of a trap, and should be released immediately if caught.

Don’t give up too soon! Cats are often found weeks after they’ve gone missing. We hope these tips help you find your lost cat!

Who doesn’t love hearing happy adoption stories? (You can email us yours at info@cms.adoptapet.com.) Our day got a lot brighter when we received an email with this sweet note about a family’s newly adopted Yorkie. She found him thanks to one of Adopt-a-Pet.com’s Search Saver emails! “We lost our sweet Yorkie in early December last year and were not sure we could love another, but then you sent me the pix of a little guy picked up in the Tampa, Florida area.  He was being fostered for being underweight, flear ridden and bald!  His foster mother like my adoption application and agreed to hold him until I was back in Florida in February.  Picked him up on my birthday, Feb 12, and we have been inseparable ever since.  He gets along well with my husband and his dog, an adopted Cavachon.  Can’t imagine our lives without him!  He is now a good weight, sleek and shiny, and so happy to be our constant companion.  Keep up the great work! Sincerely,  Judy VZ”

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Exercise is important for cats! You probably already know the importance of getting enough exercise for yourself, but did you know that regular exercise can significantly improve the physical and emotional health of your cat too? About 40% of cats in the United States are considered obese, a risk factor that contributes to many of the same serious diseases that affect people, such as diabetes, arthritis, and heart disease. Consistent doses of physical exercise can not only help your cat stay fit, but mentally stimulated as well. Once your cat gets a clean bill of health from your vet, you can build up the length and intensity of your cat exercise sessions slowly. Cats have a reputation as lazy pets who love to sleep all day, but they can easily be bored and not getting enough attention. Instead of just leaving out some kitty toys, if you can participate in your cat’s exercise sessions, you can enjoy benefits as well.  Indoor cats especially will appreciate the opportunity to safely fulfill their natural hunting instincts, keeping them happy and satisfied.

• Invest in a laser pointer. Most pet stores and home improvement stores sell these inexpensively. Most cats will love chasing the red glowing “bug”, and you will have just as much fun watching the chase! Just make sure not to shine it directly into your kitty’s eyes, and switch to a toy they can catch at the end of your play session.
• Design a “playground” for your cat. Cats are just as happy playing with everyday objects as expensive toys. Paper shopping bags without handles and cardboard boxes can make great play areas for cats who love to actively explore. We love this video of a man who built a wonderful and easy huge cardboard cat tower for his feline friend Rufus.
• Go “fishing.” You can buy fishing pole toys designed for cats, but save yourself some money by just tying a favorite toy to the end of some fishing line or string. Move around and cast the toy back and forth with jerky movements, while your cat goes nuts. Your heart will be pumping too as you try to keep up!
• Play ball! Anything that moves across your floor, like a ping pong ball, will probably pique your cat’s interest. Cats are naturally suited for short, intense bursts of activity, so keep the game moving as quickly as possible to get your cat’s heart rate up. After play time, pick up any small objects that may be choking hazards.
• Add a catio with many levels and shelves to encourage jumping and racing around.
• Please, don’t let your cat roam outside — the risks to their life and health far outweigh any benefits.

Just a few minutes a day can go a long way in keeping your cat happy and healthy. And remember, the more you are moving along with your cat, the more exercise you are getting as well!