How to Prevent the Loss of Your Pet While You Travel
If you decide to travel with your dog or cat, you must take safety precautions to ensure they stay safe and do not escape. Remember, even well-trained animals might run if they become spooked or overly excited about a new environment. Searching the woods or an unfamiliar town for a missing pet is easily prevented by following these helpful tips:
•Have your pet wear a sturdy nylon or leather collar with current ID and rabies tags firmly attached. Be sure the ID tag includes the phone number of an emergency contact. Consider having your pet implanted with microchip identification; it’s a simple procedure similar to a vaccination.
•Keep your pet on a leash or harness. Even trained animals can become agitated or disoriented in unfamiliar surroundings and fail to obey vocal commands.
•Attach the leash or harness while your pet is still inside the closed car or crate.
•Do not leave your pet unattended at any time, anywhere. A stolen pet is extremely difficult to recover.
•Escape-proof your hotel room when you travel by crating your pet and asking hotel management to make certain no one enters your room while you are gone. (Inform the property that you're traveling with an animal when making reservations.)
•Take along a recent picture and a detailed written description of your pet.
What to Do if Your Pet Does Get Lost
No matter how many precautions you take, animals can be tricky little escape artists. If yours manages to get out of your grasp and go off on his own adventure, time will be of the essence. This means you must know what to do. These steps will improve your chances of recovery.
•If your pet is lost in transit, contact the airline immediately. Ask to trace the animal via the airline's automated baggage tracking system.
•Contact local police, animal control, animal shelters, humane organizations and veterinary clinics with a description and a recent photograph. Stay in contact until your pet is found, and provide your home and destination phone numbers.
•Post signs locally and on social media so that anyone who comes across your pet knows she is lost and how to reach you.
The best way to protect your pet is to prepare, of course, but try not to become discouraged if he does manage an escape. Do your best to remain calm. Thinking clearly will help you remember the little details you can add to signs or tell local animal shelters about. Clear details make it more likely that you'll be reunited with your pet.