The Return to Home Challenge is coming (register now!) in October, and what better way to spend a little time preparing for the competition? Thankfully, there’s a ton of resources from Challenge partners to help!

The concept behind the Challenge is simple. Find a pet? Get it home. That home might be a cozy apartment, a house with a big yard or, if you’re a community cat, an abandoned lot.Whether you want to go big on microchipping, improve your in-field strategies or give your rejigger your website to make it easier to find Return to Home information, the Challenge resources page has something for you.

Below you will find just a few (of many) that can help when it comes to starting or expanding your own Return to Home programs.  

Does your community know what to do?
Losing a pet is a scary and unfamiliar situation for many. Will a pet owner in your community know what to do? Is the information a pet owner needs regarding a lost pet easily found on your website? Do you include lost pet information in newsletters or weekly emails to donors? Do you post about filing lost reports with your shelter? This helpful checklist from Michelson Found Animals outlines what makes a great lost and found website. 

There’s an app for that
Mistakes happen and sometimes our furry friends escape our homes. Encourage your community to register their pet on Petco Love Lost’s pet database.

Microchip, microchip, microchip!
Do all the pets leaving your shelter have a microchip? What about the pets that were obtained from outside the shelter? Make it your mission to get every dog and cat in your town microchipped! Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control hosts Microchip Checkpoints to scan dogs (and sometimes cats) for microchips. From there, the microchip information is either verified or updated or plans are made to get a microchip implanted.  

Registration for the Return to Home Challenge ends on Monday, August 1.