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Help, my dog is missing!

No time to waste! If your dog has gone missing, these are the things you need to be doing straight away!

• Flyers/leaflets – Use your most current photo of your dog, and use very large lettering that will catch the eye of drivers with the words “MISSING”.
• Include your immediate contact information, address, cell phone number, home phone number, and numbers to call if you can not be reached. Describe your dog, but leave out some basic identifying feature if you are offering a reward (if your dog has a strange white patch on her chest, just use “black with white patch”), to prevent the unscrupulous from trying to take
  advantage of you. Make sure you translate the leaflet into Spanish and if possible German too. If you can’t speak Spanish or German, visit a free translation website such as www.freetranslations.com and you can do an immediate ‘basic’
  translation, which may not make perfect grammatical sense, but will be good enough to get your message across.
• Tape your leaflet everywhere. Telephone poles, mailboxes, under windshield wipers of vehicles in your neighbourhood.
• Call the police – local or Guardia Civil. The police officers on duty will often hear first if the worst happens and the dog has been hit by a car. To be honest, the Spanish Police aren’t that interested in missing dogs, but it never hurts to try.
• Take out Newspaper Ads – The Euronews and Mallorca Daily Bulletin offer very cheap rates for ‘Lost Dogs’ ads. Also try the Spanish Mallorcan Dailies.
• Visit Son Reus – Don’t know how to reach them? Call at your police station, for directions
• Make a point of meeting your mail delivery person and handing them a copy of your poster. They might spot your dog on their rounds. Do the same with the rubbish collectors and the utility department meter.
• In this day in the age of computers, it’s easy to make up your own business cards. Make up cards with the dogs picture, the date lost, phone numbers . . . and hand those out to children, people out walking their dogs, running, riding bikes etc. Sometimes they throw away flyers, where they’ll keep a business card.
• You need to think like your dog. What does she like? Where would she be most likely to head? Is there another house in the neighbourhood similar to yours? She might be there. If she’s crossed a street, she might have a visual barrier preventing her (in her mind) from returning. Follow the lay of the land – which way would you be most likely to go if you were her? If you have another dog, put it on a lead and see which way it’s inclined to
  head, to get a general idea.
• Try writing big red letters on poster “CHILD’S BELOVED PET” – Maybe you’ll tug at someone’s heartstrings if they think the dog belongs to a child.
• Tape one of those large posters to the back of your vehicle (and your friend’s), so everywhere you go, “people” know “somebody” is still looking for this dog, as is not going “to just go away!”
• Visit all the vets in your local area & ask them to display your leaflet. Check in the Yellow Pages and send leaflets to all the vets on your part of the island, up to say, a 30-mile radius.
• Visit all the local dog shelters in person – as often as possible. Don’t just call; often a dog is misrepresented as a different breed altogether, ask to see ALL animals. I f visiting Son Reus, ask to see the dogs at the back who are awaiting euthanisation.
• Hand out leaflets and/or cards with the information to everybody at your local dog park, or any other popular dog area. Including all the local pet shops.
• Very important things to remember – If your dog has been frightened into running, she might not come running back to you, even when she hears your voice calling. This is why it is very important to listen carefully for whimpering, whining, and to shine your torch underneath porches, vehicles, and other potential hiding spots. Don’t count on a spot being too small, either! It’s surprising how tight a space a terrified dog can squeeze into.
• The good news is – dogs who go missing are usually found safe & well within 24 hours. Quite often wet & in my experience usually with a guilty but happy look on their face.

So keep optimistic, do everything possible to jog peoples memories in case they’ve seen your dog, offer a reward, visit the dog shelters, hand out leaflets, and keep your fingers crossed. Hopefully she’ll be home soon.

If you can think of any other ways that I haven’t mention to help find a missing dog, let me know and I’ll add them. Thanks.

Best of luck.