Found Pets

Our Admissions Department is dedicated to assisting with lost and found pets as well as rehoming needs. For any inquiries, please feel free to contact us at 785-233-7325 ext. 115 or via email at admissions@hhhstopeka.org.

I Found A Dog:

What do I do now?

If you find a stray dog, please take these steps:

1. Knock on doors nearby! It’s quite likely the dog is missing from the very neighborhood where you found it.

2. Whether you feel safe to approach the dog or not, try to get a good photo

and post it along with the found location on Nextdoor, local Facebook lost and found pet groups (for Topeka/Shawnee County these include Lost & Found Pets A ray of hope in the darkness…, Topeka lost and found animals shawnee county, Kansas lost and found pets, Topeka KS Lost and Found Pets Shawnee County, etc.), and any other relevent social media sites. Be sure to look through those lost and found Facebook groups to see if anyone has reported that dog missing!

3. Get it scanned for a microchip at HHHS, a vet office, or take it to one of our 3 24/7 microchip scanning stations in Topeka (5720 SW 21st St outside our east side Admissions Lost & Found Pets entrance, 620 SW Zoo Pkwy Hill’s Pet Nutrition Bark Park, and 455 SE Golf Park Blvd at Fellowship Hi-Crest).
4. Post the dog on Petco Love Lost! Powered by facial recognition technology, Petco Love Lost helps match found animals to reported lost pets nationwide. https://petcolove.org/lost/i-found-a-pet

5. File a found report with us at https://form.jotform.com/232994934157065
6. If you feel the dog is unsafe to be in the community, call Animal Control at 785-368-9203 if you are in Topeka or 785-368-9300 if you are outside of Topeka in Shawnee County.

7. Consider finder fostering! If you can house the dog in your yard/home/spare room, owners are often found in 1-3 days. We will provide a crate, food, and other supplies whenever possible. Call us at 785-233-7325 to arrange supply pickup.

You can also call us at 785-233-7325 to ensure your found report came through. We want to get that lost pet back home!

I Found A Cat:

What do I do now?

Ring before you bring! Call us at 785-233-7325 to discuss the best steps you can take to help a cat you’ve found. Our priority is to provide compassionate, life-saving care for animals in need who have no other options. Research and experience have shown that admitting healthy outdoor cats can lead to overcrowded shelters, illness, stress, and unnecessary euthanasia of cats who might otherwise live well in the community.

For this reason, we admit found cats who are sick, injured, or in dangerous circumstances. Healthy, well-groomed cats found outdoors often already have a “home” in that neighborhood, whether through access to food, shelter, or caretakers, and many are more likely to find their way back home by staying where they are found. Only 6% of incoming stray shelter cats are reclaimed versus 34% of dogs

By focusing intake on cats truly in need of urgent help, we can:

Avoid euthanasia of stressed/undersocialized cats who become sick in the shelter and who we are unable to treat medically.
Provide the highest standard of care to animals who need it most.
Support long-term, humane solutions to pet overpopulation such as spay/neuter and community cat programs.

We know that leaving a healthy found cat can be difficult, but this approach ensures that every cat admitted to HHHS has the best chance at a positive outcome. There may be more risks to a cat’s health and life when entering a shelter than remaining outdoors. In Topeka, it is unlawful to allow your dog to run at-large. There is no such law regarding cats.

Please keep scrolling to read more about what to do if you find kittens outdoors as well as links to resources explaining more about community cats and shelter intake policies.

Submit A Found Pet Report to HHHS admissions

Key points of research on shelter's intake procedures for cats

Shelter Overcrowding & Euthanasia

Historically, shelters admitted more cats than could be adopted, leading to overcrowding and high euthanasia rates.
This was once seen as inevitable, but new strategies show humane, cost-effective alternatives exist.

Community Cats Defined

“Community cats” include all unowned cats—feral, stray, or abandoned.
They often live within neighborhoods, with or without human support, and are not typically reclaimed at shelters.

Impact on Shelters

Over 80% of pet cats are sterilized, but only ~2% of community cats are.
Community cats contribute the largest share of shelter intake and euthanasia.

Traditional Shelter Outcomes

Few cats are reclaimed (1 in 50).
Feral/fearful cats are often euthanized; friendly cats may be adopted, but numbers exceed demand.
Example: In 2010, California shelters euthanized 276,052 cats out of 400,433 admitted.

Alternatives to Euthanasia

Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR): Cats are sterilized, vaccinated, and returned to their community. Improves health, reduces nuisance behaviors, and prevents overpopulation.
Managed/Scheduled Intake: Shelters admit cats only when space and homes are available, prioritizing sick, injured, or dangerous cats.

Challenges with Adoptions

Adoption programs help but cannot keep pace with intake numbers, especially since many feral cats aren’t suited as pets.
Leaving cats in place or returning them after TNR may increase their survival chances compared to shelter admission.

Lost & Stray Cats

Cats are rarely reclaimed from shelters (6% of stray cats in 2025 compared to 34% of stray dogs being reclaimed*).
Owners are more likely to find lost cats outside shelters.
Shelters can support by offering lost-and-found resources rather than default intake.

*According to Shelter Animals Count’s 2025 Annual Data Report.

Public Expectations

Most Americans oppose euthanasia of healthy animals and prefer non-lethal solutions, even if imperfect.
Surveys show the public generally views leaving cats in the community as more humane than euthanasia.

Research and data via Kate Hurley, DVM, MPVM and Dr. Julie Levy, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, by Madie’s Fund https://www.maddiesfund.org/feline-shelter-intake-reduction-program-faqs.htm

Found Cat HPO fact sheet_FNL_031525-2.pdf

“Cats don’t belong in shelters. And these days, most shelters agree.

If you’re like a lot of people, your first instinct when you find a cat in need is to call animal control or perhaps rush the cat to your local animal shelter. Depending on your local policies, doing either of these things may put the cat’s life in danger. In some areas, when cats are brought into shelters, it is a death sentence.

Because community cats are generally not socialized to people, they are unadoptable—which historically has meant that most of them were killed in shelters. Positive outcomes for cats brought to shelters, even friendly cats, though improving, remain abysmally low nationwide.

The good news is that an increasing number of animal shelters and animal control agencies are embracing humane policies for cats. Many are supporting community TNR efforts or creating TNR programs of their own, sometimes referred to as Shelter-Neuter-Return (SNR), or Return to Field (RTF). That’s why it is important to know YOUR local shelter’s policies for community cats.”

Learn more at alleycat.org/AnimalShelters ~ Alley Cat Allies’

“If you find kittens outside, bringing them to a local shelter is not always the best option. It’s natural to want to scoop them up, but unless they’re sick, injured, or in danger, please leave them there and wait for their mama to return. Their best chance of survival is with their mom.

Then, plan to return at a later date and have the whole family spayed/neutered. Trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR) is the most humane method of preventing cats and kittens from entering the shelter system.” ~ Best Friends

“Reuniting lost pets with their owners is a major function of many animal shelters. For dogs, shelters are often quite successful in this effort, but usually much less so for cats. Nationally, reclaim rates for cats of 2% or less are commonly reported. This is probably the result of two factors: many cats entering shelters as “strays” are actually community cats with no owner to come looking for them, and when pet cats do become lost, owners are unlikely to look for their cat at a shelter. One study found that lost cats were over 13 times more likely to be reunited with their owners by non-shelter means than by a visit or call to a shelter, with “returning home on their own” accounting for over 60% of found cats. By contrast, more than a third of dogs were found via a shelter visit or call. Even if they do look, owners generally delay searching for lost cats longer than they do for dogs, meaning that by the time they get to the shelter, their cat may already be gone.

Evidence is building that lost cats without identification may actually have a better chance of being reunited with their owners if they are left where they are versus brought to a shelter. Lost cats whose owners are not located may also be more likely to find a home if not brought to a shelter, especially if the shelter is full or the cat would not fit criteria for “adoptability”. In one survey, 68% of people who found cats and were unable to find the owner kept the cat, and another 14% re-homed the cat on their own.” ~ Kate Hurley, DVM, MPVM and Dr. Julie Levy, DVM, PhD, DACVIM