If you are able to evacuate, it's easy to forget important medications, vaccination records, or anything else you might need to keep your pet safe. Frightened animals hide, carriers may be hard to reach, and outdated contact information on your pet's microchip registration can complicate a reunion.
- Make sure the microchip registration of all your pets is up-to-date with your current address and phone number.
- Make sure your pet's profile is complete with breed information, sex, color, photos, and age.
- Add a backup contact to your account—a spouse, family member, friend, or neighbor—of someone both you and your pet trust.
- Put a visible ID tag on every pet, including indoor cats. Indoor pets are the ones most often found without any ID at all in the aftermath of a disaster.
- Photograph each pet from the front and the side. Markings and unique features can help identify your pet on sight.
- Print and save your pet's most recent vaccination information. Designated pet shelters often require proof of current vaccinations.
- Store carriers, harnesses, or leashes somewhere you can easily reach, even in the dark (not the attic or basement).
Keep your microchip registration up-to-date with your current location and contact information. It's the single fastest way to speed up reunion after a disaster.
Pack three to four days of food and water, medications, printed vaccination and medical records, a carrier, leash, or pet seat belt for every animal, and waste bags, puppy pads, or litter. If you can fit it, a favorite toy or blanket can help comfort them during stressful situations.
If You Have More Than One Animal
Practice loading up your car with all pets, humans, and emergency luggage on a calm day. Decide who will sit where ahead of time and assign an animal to each adult in the household if you can. Remember: cats may hide when they sense a storm coming, so learn their hiding spots now.
Every disaster type calls for a different response. Here's what to do in the moment, organized by the event you're facing.
Wildfire and Smoke
If you are near an active fire, follow evacuation instructions immediately. Do not wait for visible flames.
When smoke or the air-quality index reaches unhealthy levels, keep pets indoors with windows and doors closed. Set air conditioning to recirculate and, if you have one, run a properly sized HEPA air cleaner in a designated clean-air room. Avoid adding particles indoors through frying, candles, fireplaces, or smoking. Most vets recommend skipping face masks made for dogs — they aren't particularly effective and may do more harm than good.
Keep bathroom breaks brief and skip strenuous walks or outdoor exercise. Keep damp towels or pet-safe wipes handy to clean your pet's paws and coat after they've been outside. Smoke residue, ash, and other debris can cling to fur, spread through your home, and be swallowed when your pet grooms.
Birds are especially sensitive to smoke. Flat-faced breeds, puppies, kittens, senior animals, and pets with heart or lung conditions also require close monitoring. Contact your veterinarian promptly for coughing, gagging, noisy or labored breathing, unusual fatigue, weakness, or loss of appetite.
Hurricanes
You may have several days of warning, so use them wisely. Reserve pet-friendly lodging outside the projected impact area early; rooms can fill long before the storm arrives. Or make arrangements to stay with friends and family and confirm with them that your pets will be welcome. Use this time to refill prescriptions, gather records, charge devices, and confirm your evacuation route while you still have power and cell service.
Never leave a pet behind with extra food and water. You may not be allowed to return for days—or longer.
Tornado
You may have only minutes between warning and impact. Store a leash or carrier in your shelter area, and practice getting every animal into that space quickly.
Keep identification on pets at all times during tornado season, including when indoors. If your home or fencing is damaged, a frightened pet can escape through an opening that wasn't there previously.
Flood
If you are near an active flood or expect you might be, follow evacuation instructions immediately. Roads may become impassable before you see water near your home. Before a flood happens, identify both a safe driving route and higher ground you could reach on foot.
Keep pets (and yourself) out of floodwater, even if it's only a few inches deep. Even shallow moving water can knock a person over if the current is strong. It also may contain sewage, chemicals, sharp or large debris, and other unsafe substances and objects.
Get help immediately. Keep them in sight if you can, note their exact location, and call emergency responders or animal control. Moving water can overwhelm even strong swimmers, so guiding trained rescuers to your pet may be the safest way to reach them.
Earthquake
With earthquakes, you'll often have no warning. During the shaking, drop, cover, and hold on. Your pet may run or hide; resist the instinct to follow them, since moving around could put you both in greater danger. As soon as the shaking stops, locate and secure them before opening any doors.
Once the shaking stops, put on sturdy shoes and secure every pet in a carrier or on a leash before opening exterior doors. Check them for injuries and keep them away from broken glass, spilled chemicals, damaged structures, and downed power lines. Expect aftershocks, and keep pets confined until you've checked your home, yard, and fencing for new escape routes. If you live in a tsunami zone, move to higher ground immediately after strong or prolonged shaking.
Keep pets leashed, harnessed, or crated until your house and yard are secure
Fences may be damaged, familiar landmarks may be gone, and scent trails may have washed away. Even a normally confident pet can panic in a landscape it no longer recognizes. If your pet normally has free range, it might be a good idea to walk them around your neighborhood for a few days so that they can reorient themselves. That way, you can be sure there isn't something dangerous nearby.
Keep them away from standing water and debris
Wipe paws and fur when they come inside. Pets groom themselves, so anything on their coat may eventually be swallowed.
Watch for delayed symptoms
Smoke, contaminated water, stress, and injury can cause problems that are not immediately obvious. Coughing, labored breathing, vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, pain, or loss of appetite warrant a call to your veterinarian.
Return to exercise gradually
Check current air-quality readings and other local safety notices rather than relying on whether the sky looks clear or the waters have receded.
Update your contact information if you have relocated or returned home
The address on your registry should always match the address where you are staying with your pet.
Update your pet's status
Login to your Pet Registration and Recovery dashboard and update your pet's status to "lost." Once reported, they will automatically be added to our Lost Pet Directory.
Browse our Found Pet Directory
If your pet has been found by a Good Samaritan, they might be reported in our Found Pet Directory.
Print out lost pet flyers and post them near where they were last seen
Right from your dashboard, you can download a lost pet flyer that automatically includes a photo of your pet, your contact information, and any other details about their last whereabouts that you provide.
Contact local shelters and veterinary practices
You can automatically generate a list of nearby vets and shelters and their contact information from your dashboard. Additionally, you can choose to upgrade and our team can do the calling on your behalf while you focus your search on the ground.
Post on social media and in online communities
Share recent photos, unique features, the last confirmed location, and a reliable way to reach you.
Pets are reunited with their families days—and sometimes weeks or even months—after they disappear. Do not assume that silence means your pet has not been found.