If you believe that your lost pet may be at the Irvine Animal Care Center, please visit the shelter in person to identify and reclaim your pet. Please note that we cannot verify the identity of your pet by phone or e-mail. Stray pets are held for 7 days before they are made available for adoption.

Tips for finding a lost pet:

• Put up signs! Include a color photo, a thorough description of the pet, the date when it was lost, the area where it was lost, and the offer of an unspecified monetary reward (and your phone number, of course!). Post them everywhere, not just in your own neighborhood, and replace fallen signs immediately.

• Call and visit all area shelters and rescues. Leave a description of your pet to be put in their files, and be as precise in your description as possible. But don’t depend on the shelters to find your pet for you—visit them and look at their animals and their impound log every few days.

• Look for your pet! Walk, bike, or drive to the places your pet might have gone. A lost pet who’s also scared may not be easy to find. Don’t be embarrassed to call out loud for your pet. Be on the lookout for "found" signs while you’re out—you might see your pet on one of them!

• Take flyers to local grocery stores, pet-supply stores, shelters and vets’ offices.

• Place a "lost" ad in your local papers and read the "found" ads daily.

• Go door to door in your neighborhood with a picture of your pet, and ask your neighbors whether they’ve seen it. Ask them to check their garages, sheds, or any other spaces where a lost pet could hide.

• Don’t give up! We recently reunited an elderly dog with his owners after he’d been lost for almost six months. Nothing is impossible! Your pet didn’t get lost because it didn’t love you or was ungrateful to you; it wants to be back home as much as you want it there. Keep looking.

Remember, an identification tag and a microchip are your pet's best chance of getting home safely.

For location, hours and directions, click here

For comments or additional information contact us at info@irvineshelter.org