1. Search the area.

Start by searching inside your home and around your property. Cats are experts at hiding quietly in small, dark, or enclosed spaces—especially when scared or injured. Check in closets, cupboards, under furniture, in basements, garages, sheds, window wells, and under decks. Do not rely on your cat making noise to reveal their location. Indoor cats who slip outside often stay very close to home but remain silent and hidden until the area is quiet. Frightened cats are most likely to emerge after dark or early in the morning. During these hours, walk calmly around your property with a flashlight and a few cans of smelly cat food or treats. Pop the can open or shake the treat jar—whatever is familiar to your cat. If your cat doesn’t appear, softly call their name in a calm, reassuring voice.

2. Contact your neighbors & post online.

After checking your home, time is your most valuable asset. Most missing cats stay within a 4–6 house radius of where they escaped. Notify your neighbors right away, ask them to check their garages, sheds, decks, and porches, and share your contact information. You can also expand your search online by posting a clear photo and description of your cat on:

• Nextdoor

• Facebook community groups such as Lost/Found Cats Minnesota or Lost Cats of Wisconsin

• PawBoost to send out a free lost pet alert in your area

3. View Animals In Our Care

View the Animals In Our Care to see if you animal has already been found/impounded by Companion Animal Care & Control, continue to check this page daily if you are still missing your animal.

4. Report your pet as lost

Complete the Report a Lost Animal form on the Companion Animal Control website, once submitted the lost pet will be automatically posted on our website under the Lost Animals page. Also call your local County Sheriff Department Non-Emergency number to file a lost pet report, the dispatcher will collect your information and notify you if an animal is found matching the description of yours—however everyone describes animals differently so do not rely solely on the lost pet report to match up with a found animals.

Anoka Co., MN 763-427-1212

Ramsey Co., MN 651-767-0640

Washington Co, MN 651-439-9381

St. Croix Co., WI 715-386-4701

Pierce Co., WI 715-273-5051

4. Help your pet smell their way home.

Cats have a stronger sense of smell than humans. Place a blanket, cat bed or a used clothing item such as a sweatshirt outside near your home along with your pet’s food and water dish. Place the litterbox outside and sprinkle some cat litter in the yard to spread out familiar sent for your cat. If your cat returns home overnight, these items will reassure him/her to stay in the area. If you have a trail camera, set it up so you can see if your cat returns back home overnight. If you have a garage leave your garage cracked open approximately 1ft, when you quietly walk out into the garage in the morning close it immediately and then look around for your cat. If you need to rent a live trap, contact us.

5. Contact the microchip company.

If your cat is microchipped, contact your microchip company to report your lost cat and to make sure your contact information is correct. If you don’t have the phone number for the chip company, contact your vet or the shelter that implanted it. To look up any microchip company, visit Pet Microchip Lookup

6. Hang posters around the area your pet went missing.

Hang posters and flyers at intersections around the neighborhood, post them at eye level for a driver of a vehicle. Be sure to maintain the flyers through inclement weather & take them down once you’ve found your cat.

7. Check local animal shelters

Companion Animal Control lists impound partners on our page, however members of the public may not know to contact us and might instead bring a found animal to a local animal shelter. Be sure to check these sites daily as state required stray holds in are not long, in MN animals are held for 5 days and in WI standard stay holds are 4 days. After these holding periods the impound facility or shelter owns an animal, so many shelters remove photos of animals from the website.

Animal Humane Society (Woodbury, Golden Valley, Coon Rapids, St. Paul)

River Bluff Humane Society (Redwing, MN)

Northwoods Humane Society (Wyoming, MN)