DDPHE Blog: Your Summer Pet Safety Checklist

DDPHE Blog: Your Summer Pet Safety Checklist

Published on July 15, 2026

Lots of us are traveling this summer. And even if yours is a stay-cation, not a vacation, your pets are significantly more at risk of wandering off at this time of year. Follow these tips to ensure that, if the worst happens and your dog or cat goes missing, you'll have the very best chance of getting them back quickly.

Before your pet goes missing:

• License and Microchip your pet. Make sure your pet is licensed, wearing an ID tag, and is microchipped with updated contact information. If a lost pet without a tag is brought to a shelter or veterinary office, it will be scanned for a microchip and the owner contacted. Denver Animal Protection reunites hundreds of animals every year specifically because of microchips and license tags. Our licenses contain a QR code, so when they are scanned with a smart phone, owners' contact information can be read.
• Look for escape routes. Secure your yard, doors, and gates and double-check them frequently.
• Keep your dogs leashed and cats indoors.
• Spay or neuter your pets. This eliminates an animal's reproductive instincts and decreases the chances of it running away.

Here are tips and resources for finding a pet that is lost:

• Start searching immediately. Hang fliers within a 3-mile radius, notify neighbors.
• Leave an item of your clothing, your pet's bedding or toys, or cat's litter box outside to help your pet smell its way back home.
• Check and post to online communities like Nextdoor, Neighbors by Ring, Denver Lost and Found Pets Facebook Group, Colorado Lost or Found Pets Facebook Group, Pawboost, Petco Love Lost, Craigslist, FidoFinder, PetHarbor, and 24Pet Connect.
• Check Denver Animal Shelter's lost pets page at least daily. Our website is updated hourly with lost pet photos and descriptions. Pets can come to our shelter weeks or months after they go missing.
• Check all other shelters' lost pets pages. Many pets are found more than 10 miles from where they were lost. Check out this list of area shelters.
• If your pet has been missing for more than five days, check pets for adoption at all shelters.

If you find a pet, regardless of where, know this: Our doors are always open, 365 days a year, 24/7. Even after regular business hours, you can bring the animal to safety in our night drop-off kennels for found pets. Enter to the left of the shelter's Lost and Found entrance.

Thanks for keeping your pets safe this summer!

• Animal Shelter
• Public Health & Environment