Lost and Found
Dog Advice

If you’ve lost a dog or found a stray, follow the links below to find out what the best next course of action is. 

Lost A Dog?
Found A Dog?

Lost dogs

If you’ve lost your dog the first thing to do is contact their microchip database to advise them your dog is missing. Then do the following:

Keeping your dog safe

By law, your dog MUST be microchipped (and the details kept up to date), and, wear a collar and ID tag with your name and contact details. These two simple things will help ensure your dog is reunited with you as soon as possible.

Lost cats

If you’ve lost your cat the first thing to is contact their microchip database to advise them your cat is missing. Then do the following:​

  • Contact your local vets and rehoming centres.
  • Register your cat on missing pet websites. We recommend, PetsLocated, DogsLost and social media lost and found sites.
  • Put up posters in the local area, remember not everyone is on the internet.

Keeping your cat safe

We recommend your cat is microchipped, this simple step will help ensure your cat is reunited with you as soon as possible, we also recommend cats wear collars.

Found a pet?

Stray dogs

You must return a stray dog to its owner if you know who the owner is. If you find a stray dog and can’t contact the owner, you must report it to the council. This is a legal requirement.

We are unable to accept stray dogs at Rain Rescue.

Other animals, cruelty and abandonment

Depending on the situation, if you have concerns about cruelty or abandonment, you may need to contact the RSPCA. The RSPCA may also be able to help with concerns involving wildlife. See more information on their website here.

Stray cats

Sadly, there is no official system to report a stray cat.

It’s important to know the difference between a feral cat and a stray cat. Feral cats are not approachable, are generally unfriendly and so long as they are in a healthy condition can happily live outside and look after themselves. However, they should be neutered to prevent over-population.

If you find a friendly stray cat we advise trying to find its owner by doing the following:

  • Remember cats roam large areas, so ask around your neighbours to see if anyone locally knows who they belong to.
  • Put up posters with a photo of the cat and your contact details.
  • If you can safely transport the cat, take it to a vet to be scanned for a microchip.
  • You can also try a paper collar. Download one from the RSPCA website here.
  • If you are unable to keep the cat yourself, a local animal rescue charity may be able to help. You can get in touch with us about stray cats in the South Yorkshire area by completing this form with as much information as you can.