A friend's dog, Murray, is missing right now in Echo Park

A recent personal experience has prompted me to share with everyone some basic information about what to do when you find a lost cat or dog wandering the streets of Echo Park. Here are some steps and suggestions for what to do:

1. Of course, always approach with caution. The little dog I recently found running around was super friendly, so we didn’t have a hard time getting to know him.
2. No collar or tag? You can try and hang on to the animal and hang up posters around the neighborhood or post a notification on the Echo Elysian Neighborhood Council forum or the Echo Park Animal Alliance forum. However, if you’re like me and have other animals in the house or just no room for another, you might want to go to the next step.
3. Go to the nearest animal shelter, which is, for the 90026 area code, the North Central Shelter located at 3201 Lacy Street, Los Angeles, CA 90031. There they can find out of the animal is chipped, which is your best bet to find the owner (assuming the animal is correctly registered).
4. If there’s no chip, get the impound number so you can track the animal and make sure it gets adopted. They have a first rights program, which allows the “finder” first dibs on the animal if unclaimed. After five days of impound, you can adopt/rescue the animal. You can keep track of the animal through the LA Animal Services website by clicking here. If the tracking number doesn’t come up, it means the animal has been picked up by its owner or adopted.

I got a lot of help from someone at the Echo Park Animal Alliance, a great resource for residents. They “feed, foster and re-home stray dogs dumped in Elysian Park, raise funds for local animals’ medical expenses, offer free pet food and shelter to the neediest members of our community.” There are some really cute dogs and cats up for adoption through the EPAA, you an take a look at those animals through its website by clicking here.