I found a stray animal. What do I do?

If you are looking for help with an animal that you’ve found, begin by:

1. Posting on the neighborhood lost/found pet apps like Nextdoor and Pawboost – many times owners looking for their pets will check here first.
2. Posting on neighborhood Facebook pages — here are some popular Houston ones:
   • Greater Houston Lost and Found Dogs and Cats
   • Houston, TX – Lost Dogs, Cats & Pets
   • Lost and Found Pets of Houston
   • Houston Lost and Found Pets
   • Lost & Found Pets Of Houston / Harris county
   • Houston Pet Help – Rescue Network – Lost & Found
   • Lost N’ Found Pets of Houston and surrounding Areas
   • HOUSTON LOST & FOUND PETS
   • Heights – Houston Heights Lost and Found Pet Page
   • Montrose/Midtown – Montrose / Midtown Lost & Found Pets – Houston, TX
3. Take the animal to any vet clinic to scan for a microchip. If an animal if microchipped, you can reunite a pet with its owner via the pet’s microchip information.
4. Post flyers in the area you found the animal. When you post an animal on lost/found pet services like Pawboost, they create a flyer for you that you can easily print out and put up.

Situation 2: Community Cat

If you have found a neighborhood cat that is not owned, look for a tipped ear indicating that the cat is neutered and return the cat to where it was found.

Ear-tipped cats are part of a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program and should not be removed from their colony unless injured or ill. If injured or ill, please seek veterinary care.

If the cat is not neutered (again, look for an ear-tip), please seek spay/neuter at your nearest low-cost clinic or at a Fix Houston spay-neuter event. Advice on how to TNR community cats can be found here.

Situation 3: Cannot reunite with owners

If the animal you’ve found is not a part of a community cat colony and you’ve been unsuccessful in locating the owner, we have a lot of different ways to help you.

We do have a limited number of fosters and we always run at maximum capacity so that we can save as many animals as possible. If all of the Friends For Life foster homes are filled, we ask that you foster the animal you’ve found. You can find out more information about what fostering means by clicking here.

While we have a limited number of spaces in our program, there are other ways we can assist you in caring for your rescue.

• You can find our online enrollment form by clicking here.
• You can find more details about fostering by clicking here.
• You can find other rescue groups and traditional (NOT no kill shelters) by clicking here.

Need help vetting or feeding an animal?

Here are some quick links, all of which are included on our “Get Help with an Animal” page:

• Need help feeding an animal? We have a pet food bank.
• Saw a stray animal that you believe needs to be picked up? Here are the links to contact official Animal Control offices.
• Need financial assistance with caring for an animal? We’ve put a big list together of financial assistance programs.
• Need to report animal cruelty? Here is the link to 927PAWS, which was created by the Harris County Animal Cruelty Taskforce.
• Have an animal that has behavior challenges? Check out our Pet Behavior Support page.