Orlando

MISSION AND FAQ

 https://www.facebook.com/lostandfound32804

bella sm

MISSION: To serve as a source of information about lost and found pets in the College Park community of Orlando, Florida (zip code 32804.) I will scan other message forums and look for relevant details to post here. Visitors and followers of  the Facebook page are welcome to add their own notices and I’ll help get the word out. And I’ll make an effort to follow up on items to see what happens, especially to animals that are found but not claimed.

Why? Because, as I started trying to find a lost dog post for a friend to match the dog her friend had found in another neighborhood (who was found due to neighborhood signage) and I realized that the lost and found notices could end up on two different web sites, that the headers (um, “DOG”) might not be enough to grab the eye, and because ultimately I wanted to see if collating all the available info for one community, one zip code, would be helpful in helping keep our animal neighbors safe.

Why Facebook? Because, local research stats show that 64% of adults in Orange County have visited Facebook at least monthly, way more than other social media. And some, frequently. So it seemed like the easiest way to reach more people. After all, the best, fastest info doesn’t help unless it reaches the right people.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION:

  • Craigslist  – I’ll be scanning at least daily, both Lost and Found  and Pets  as some lost/found items get posted there.
  • Orange County Animal Services has a lost and found forum also. You can search by keywords but don’t be too specific. I search for “College Park” a lot, or by breed.  Owners should also scan OCAS’s pet population frequently:  Dogs / Cats / Other. They don’t give location of intake but they do list the date. They do advise to go at least once in person and do a walk-through.
  • GreaterOrlandoLostPets.com, which is set up like WinterParkLostPets, only it doesn’t seem to have as much activity.

National or wide ranging sites searchable by map and/or zip:

  •  FidoFinder.com for dogs, and   TabbyTracker.com ( they look like they are sister sites)
  • HelpingLostPets.com which has a coded map.
  • LostMyDoggie.com is another national site. You search lost/found separately by zip/radius but can narrow to breed, gender, size, etc.
  • And, just realized, there is a companion site, LostMyKitty.com.
  • PetKey is a site that you can search by zip, drilled down to lost/found and dog/cat/bird. I saw a few there I didn’t spot elsewhere. Note: there are some very old posts on here – they never go away.
  • Pet Amber Alert allows you to browse lost pets but doesn’t display found ones. It looks like they charge a fee to call residents in the immediate neighborhood. I’ve seen an ad for the same on Craigslist.
  • Another site that lists mostly lost pets is FindToto.com.  There is a section for “I found a pet” but it’s a little trickier to find and not as full. I’ve optimized these links to Florida results; hopefully that will work for you.
  • Something called America’s National Lost & Found Pet Database, out of Alabama. You can drill down by pet type (species) and state at first, then you’ll be able to zone in by zip or city. A few in our region posted there.
  • A nonspecific database called LostandFound.com. In my brief experience, this is a poorly designed site and the most recently reported lost pet or object was from Dec 2012 (as of 4/2/14), though some are hard to tell as there is no year. I tried contacting one dog’s finder but need to “purchase contact credits.” Um, NO.
  •  PetHarbor is a web site in which you can search various shelter databases at the same time. I used it for a Seminole County missing pet. It’s a little clunky but helpful. It seems to have ONLY shelter intake animals, though, not privately found pets.
  • Lost and Found Hound: a very small site with few, national, listings.

LOCAL COLLEGE PARK INFO

  • Local College Park groups like the CP Partnership and CP Community Paper often post on their FB pages about pets as they learn of missing or found ones.
  • I get Home Again alerts (as a subscriber for my microchipped cat) and will forward that info here.
  • NextDoor.com is a great concept. It’s like a ‘gated’ Facebook in that you only get access to info in your own neighborhood and a few adjacent ones, has some taps to/from city government, and has lots of local info sharing. I copy the lost/found info to NextDoor and share from it.  It’s free, but you do have to prove you live where you say, so you may have to put landline phone info in, or a credit card for billing address confirmation.

OTHER FACEBOOK PAGES

AND ELSEWHERE

  • Scanning Facebook, Twitter, and other social media and online forums.
  • Please let me know of any other sources! I have checked the Sentinel’s online classified but Lost and Found appears to be empty.
  • YOU, the reader and follower of this page, and your friends and neighbors with whom you share these concerns.

What about pet rescue, adoption, sale? Can I post my puppies here for adoption?

This is meant to be purely a forum for those critical times when a pet is lost or a pet turns up, and to promote the urgent need for that animal and his family to find each other. So, no, no adoption or sale posts here please.

What about abandoned or homeless pets?

College Park is, I am aware, awash in feral cats. Some cats born under my house predated me at my address. I had to learn about resources for trap-neuter-return (TNR) and wish I’d known right away.  Ask me and I can send you some information. CARE Feline TNR is a great organization. Check out their web page at: http://carefelinetnr.org/.  I believe, as they do, that both the cats and the community are best served if they can be spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and cared for where they are, with the exception of friendly ones that can be adopted as pets.

Do know what the ear-tipping you may see on an outside cat means? It denotes that it has been neutered or spayed, and given basic vaccines, and has or had a caregiver in the community. A few ear-tipped cats may be adopted as pets and could be genuinely lost, and caregivers (I, for one) do worry about feral cats who disappear, so if an ear-tipped cat is new or of concern to you, send me the info and I’ll share that as “SEEN” (rather than lost or found.”)

What about wildlife?

I have no expertise in this area, but can refer you to this SPCA page of resources. http://www.orlandopets.org/wildlife_resources.htm

There’s a cat/dog hanging around my house, but I can’t get close enough to it, or I’m worried about it biting/scratching.

Pets are often skittish when they are out of familiar environments, especially those used to being indoors. A normally friendly animal may avoid people. My basic advice is that if you don’t feel confident about handling it, don’t. Try to win the pet’s trust by supplying food.  A humane trap may be needed to secure a cat that isn’t friendly.

 https://www.facebook.com/lostandfound32804