Article: Two Great Myths about Lost & Missing Pets—Part 1

Family & friends have the best intentions in offering advice / opinions, but stick to your heart

When you have a missing pet it's very often due to circumstances beyond the pet parent's control. The first step most people take is to enlist the help of family, friends, and neighbors to form a search party to get your furry family member back home safely and quickly. You do everything you can think of during this stressful event. It takes an emotional and physical toll on the entire family.

What happens next, according to almost every one of our lost pet clients, is that everyone involved expresses an opinion, often perpetuating two great myths about missing pets: coyotes are waiting right at your gate for your pet and if they make it past the coyotes, your pet will turn feral is it lives in wild longer than a week. Although they may have the best intentions, these kind helpers do not realize they are perpetuating myths and stressing family members out a great deal in the process..

We Understand What You Are Going Through

As professional animal communicators who handle numerous lost pet cases every week, we know what you are going through (and hear from your pet as to what they are going through). When our clients discuss the confidential details of their case they almost always bring up those two topics word for word. "Everyone is telling me my pet will become feral if I don't get them home within a week and coyotes are in the woods out back, I'm really worried about that too."

We'll discuss coyotes in Part 2 of this article, but for now, let's put your mind to rest on just saying coyotes usually have a lot easier prey than human scented pets who can fight back with sharp claws and big teeth. Cats and dogs are not a natural diet for coyotes.

What Happens When a Pet Goes Missing?

Let's talk about what happens when a pet goes missing. Certainly there is an immediate flight or fright reaction for just about any animal on the loose the first time in their life. Some animals have a perfect escape, knowing exactly what they are doing and where they are going on this well planned adventure.

Most pets find themselves accidentally on the loose. Pets that have been indoors all of their lives that are experiencing no walls, open sky, and no bed to hide under for the first time, will have a different reaction at first than an outdoor pet. When they finally get a grasp of their surroundings, catching their breath and feeling a little more secure, their internal survival instincts kick in. This usually happens when they start to feel hungry, thirsty, hot, and cold or hurt in some way and have time to nurse their wounds.

Stay Hopeful and Optimistic

When you have a missing pet event happening the best course of action to take is one of hope and optimism to help guide your pet home, using the powers of your unique bond and love with them. This is the whole concept behind the utilizing the golden chord mediation. Sending out an energetic beacon of love and hope will be ever more powerful than a beacon of panic, fear and everything that can possibly go wrong on their adventures in your neighborhood or just beyond.

Use all the resources available to you, such as pet detectives, pet amber alerts, animal communicators, posters and flyers, (see our complete list of tips and helpful resources.) However, shut out the myths and utilize your own powerful instincts. That little voice you hear in the back of your mind or that funny feeling in your gut may just be your pet getting through to you using their incredible connection to you guiding you right to them. Of course understanding why they left, solving known or unknown issues at home can be tricky and that's where a professional animal communicator comes into the picture to help. We can also help after you get them home to resolve any behavior issues to keep them from running away again.

Having been a pet parent my entire life, and having gone through my own missing pet event, I can assure you that I would leave "no stone unturned" in the search for any of our family members.

Pets Remember

Some clients ask us, even after a pet has been missing for just a few weeks if the pet will remember them. We point them to our "Missing Pets Returning Home in the News" page. These are extreme examples of pets missing for many years, but it shows how pets that have been gone for 5, 6 even 8 years immediately recognize their families. Their tails wag, bodies shake, and sometimes they pee a little from excitement and run right up to the family. Pets remember everything just like we do. We point out Dr Stephen Hawking signed a document with 27 other important scientist stating that Scientists Proclaim Animal and Human Consciousness the Same. That means they are individuals who think, feel, laugh, grieve and remember just like us.

Hear your pets - heal your pets ™

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