People find all kinds of dogs in all kinds of ways. They wander into their yards or their places of work, they find them tied to dumpsters or just wandering around. At any given time, there are estimated to be at least 20,000 strays on Chicago's streets! Cats can be even worse. Many people just leave them to wander and fend for themselves. What they don't often realize is that if left on the streets unaltered, a pair of breeding cats, which can have two or more litters per year, can exponentially produce 420,000 offspring over a seven-year period!

If you find an animal, what should you do?

Well, we always advise people to take the dog or cat to the nearest animal shelter (www.chicagoanimalcare.org). Chances are that the owner is searching for their pet and they won't find him if he is languishing at your house, right? And the shelter will scan the animal for a microchip!

I know, I know... none of us want to take an animal to the shelter, but that's the best way for the owner to find their lost pet!

Of course, not all dogs or cats have a safe home to call their own.  If you fall in love with the wandering pooch or frisky feline, and you feel you might want to adopt him, there are one or two things you can do.

If you don't want to take him to the shelter, your other choice is to put ads in the newspaper. You must run an ad for three consecutive weeks, and if no one claims him, he is legally yours.

All is not lost if you take him to the shelter, though. Most shelters will give you first rights on the animal when he becomes available for adoption. There may be a small fee for this, but it will ensure that you can adopt him before others become interested.

If you've tried to find the animal's owner and have had no success, fostering that pet until a permanent home can be found may mean the difference between life and death for that dog or cat. If you can foster, we can help out with the rest! Contact us at chicago@nlol.org to find out how we can assist you. (Due to our limited amount of foster home space and the fact that we are always at our capacity, we can rarely take an additional animal in.)

Let's help reduce the number of homeless and unwanted animals in Chicago - please spay or neuter your pet!