Practical guidance, honestly sourced

When a pet goes missing, the internet gives you a thousand versions of the same article and almost nothing you can act on. Which shelter serves your address. How long they will hold a stray before rehoming. Whether the local Facebook group is still active or died three years ago.

Stray hold times in particular are set almost entirely by municipal bylaw rather than by province, which means the single most time critical fact in a search is also the hardest one to look up. Someone who waits out a long weekend can lose their pet to adoption without ever knowing there was a clock.

So the aim here is narrow and practical: get the local facts right, say plainly where each one came from, date stamp it, and make it easy to correct.

The search advice in the guides is drawn from published lost pet recovery research and from established search and rescue practice, not from anecdote. Where a specific figure appears, the study is named on the page so you can go and read it.

Where something is practical craft rather than a research finding, such as how to build a poster, the page says that too. Each guide carries its own sources section and a last reviewed date.

None of this is veterinary, legal or emergency advice. If an animal is injured, call a veterinarian. If a bylaw question has real consequences for you, confirm it with the municipality directly.