If you have found a pet, you have several options:

1.  Call your local police department and request a pick up of the pet.  Some departments have an animal control officer and others will have their on duty officers pick up the pet.  Some will have their own holding area, contract with a local vet for this service, or contract with the county SPCA.  The Women's Humane Society does not have any animal control contracts, but we accept all unwanted animals from within a 50 mile radius of our facility from police officers or private citizens.

2.  Surrender the pet to a nearby shelter.  Try to use a shelter near where you found the pet, not near your work or home if this location is a long distance from where you found the pet.  Bucks County has only two facilities: the Women's Humane Society (lower Bucks County) and the Bucks County SPCA in Lahaska, (central Bucks County).  Montgomery County has several different locations.  Pennsylvania SPCA is the animal control agency for Philadelphia County.  Go to www.Petfinder.com for contact and address information for all these shelters.  All of these facilities will euthanize unadoptable animals or when space becomes an issue.  They will also be the easiest places for an owner to contact and search for their lost pet.

3.  Maintain physical custody of the pet and post a found report in your local paper, vets offices, community bulletin boards, or through any of the local (www.Zachalert.org) through national reunification websites:

www.fidofinder.com a directory of lost dogs
www.911parrotalert.com information on lost and found parrots all around the world and offer support and guidance to members
www.craigslist.org post a lost pet ad
www.pets911.com
http://missingpetpartnership.org/ 
http://www.lostandpound.com/

If you decide to try to hold onto the animal until the owner is located, call all nearby shelters and make a found report. 

The lines get fuzzy and ownership is a tough call once you have fed an outdoor animal or had physical custody of an animal for greater than two weeks.  Judges have ruled for both parties when there is a dispute about rightful ownership of a pet in a finder's care.  Similarly, you assume some level of liability once you are feeding and/or housing an animal for greater than a 2 week period of time.

If the thought of the possibility of euthanasia is overwhelming for this animal you have already saved once, you may seek out a spot on a waiting list for a "no kill" or "limited access" rescue group.  There are no limited access facilities in our area.  All no kill rescues operate with foster homes or board animals at private vets' offices or boarding facilities.  Since their funds and resources are stretched thin and they can get to the point of being filled with animals that are unadoptable to the majority of potential adopters, the waiting list to take new animals can be long.  They may allow you to maintain physical custody and assist with a search for the owner or an adopter.  If this involves posting the pet online, this allows the original owner to view the pet if they have made checking the available pet sites part of their search strategies.

If you decide to hold onto the animal- either as you hope to find the owner or because you are becoming increasingly attached and there have been no response to your found reporting efforts, quarantine it away from any same species animals in your home.  Do not allow contact with humans and wash your hands after each contact with the animal's saliva until after the rabies vaccine has been given.  Do not allow interaction with your pets until the animal has been given the distemper vaccine, and a nasal vaccine called bordetella to prevent kennel cough in dogs and test stray cats for feline leukemia and AIDS.  A heartworm test is recommended because if the cat or dog is heartworm positive and bit by a mosquito that goes on to bite your pet, your pet is at risk of contracting the disease if their heartworm preventive treatment is behind schedule or you choose not to give heartworm preventive medication.  Bring a stool sample to the vet to check for worms and treat any digestive tract worms that may be contagious to your pets and humans.  Maintain the quarantine for a 3-5 day period following a clean vet exam and the vaccines referenced above.  Certainly quarantine and seek vet care for an animal showing signs of illness or injury.

Please put yourself in the shoes of a grieving pet owner and do everything you can to locate the owner.  

Know that some undersocialized or submissive dogs may behave in a fearful manner or cower easily.  Do not make the potentially erroneous assessment that this dog was "abused" by a previous owner so you cease or resist any efforts to find an owner or respond to a lost report.  A dog that has never been harmed by its owner, is missing that leader, and in a new "pack" situation can display symptoms that lead you to believe it has been abused.  The abusive behavior that made it hand- or object-shy may have come in the days it was on the run when it got into trash cans to scrounge for food.  Base any assessment about an owner on the interaction if there is a reunification with the owner.  If you note the owner treating the animal poorly or the animal acting fearfully towards the owner, contact your local SPCA and report your observations and concerns. 

The Women's Humane Society is open seven days a week to take lost reports at 215-750-3100 and accept stray animals, maintains a lost and found pets bulletin board, and has volunteers assist with managing the lost and found pet reports.  Our staff is available during all shelter hours to escort owners through the animal areas to search for lost pets.  Pets surrendered or reported as found within hours of being reported lost are reunited almost daily at our facility.

We commend you for taking an exhaustive approach to reuniting this pet with its owner through the above resources and options.

Stray or feral mother cat delivered under your porch or shed?

Each day vets' offices and animal welfare entities field questions from people who have become the unsolicited and unexpected landlords of a feline maternity ward.  Requests come for subsidized or reduced cost vet care and spay and/or neuter surgery.  From the finder's point of view, they just want help to do the right thing to stop the overpopulation of pets and they did not choose to bring this mother cat or litter into their life; from a financial or emotional perspective.  From the professional's point of view, there is no way to determine if this is truly a "found cat" situation or an irresponsible owner looking for subsidized vet care to address allowing their unaltered pet to roam outdoors.  Resources are stretched very thin caring for the animals surrendered to animal welfare organizations.  Surrender and care at the facility are the protocals in place for most shelters.   Vets differ from practice to practice on how they respond to such requests.  Alley Cat Allies is the most comprehensive resource on trap, alter, and release strategies and supports for stray or feral cats.  Use the following link to get more information: http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=285

We rent humane traps for a deposit of $65.00.  When the trap is returned we deduct $15.00 for each week of rental.  Any monies that are being returned to you will come by way of check through the mail.  Our front office staff can not issue any refunds; they must go through our business office.

You may certainly rent a trap to capture the mother and babies and surrender them to the Women's Humane Society to be considered for our adoption program.  The kittens must be six weeks old and everyone needs to be healthy and friendly.  If we can not handle a feral or undersocialized animal, we will not risk injury to our staff and adopters and the stress of confinement for that animal.  Please read the section on 'Giving Up an Animal' for more information.  We will take in animals of all ages and behaviors, but ask that you understand that they may be euthanized.