One of the goals of our non-profit organisation is to return lost pets to their owners. If you have lost your pet, please call or send an e-mail to your nearest shelter. If you do not know which shelter accommodates lost pets in your town, contact your local municipality because they are responsible for making sure pets are returned to their homes. You may also consider contacting neighbouring municipalities because pets do not acknowledge municipality or state boarders. 

• When calling or writing to the shelter, please let us know the following: where and when you lost your pet, what gender is the pet, what does the pet look like, does it have a collar or has it been microchipped and whether there is something specific about its appearance. If you have a picture of your pet, please send it to the shelter. If you are calling outside office hours please leave us a message with the details named above!
• Our shelters aim to put up pictures of found pets on their websites so please check the albums, perhaps your pet has already been found.
• The moment you notice your pet has gone missing try calling it by its name. Most dogs and cats tend to roam around in the vicinity of their home for the first 12-24 hours and can be found easily by looking around in the neighbourhood and asking the locals whether anyone has seen your pet. Hand out your phone number to all you neighbours so they can contact you when your pet is seen or found. 
• Try putting up pictures of your pet in the area where it went missing. You can also use internet forums to put up ads with your contact number and pictures or descriptions of your pet. Do not add  your home address!
• Use radio announcements! Our experience shows that the best outcome in Estonia is achieved by putting up a private ad at Radio Elmar. 
• Put up an ad in the local newspaper.
• Look around in the vicinity of your house. Cats who have never been ouside their home tend to be very frightened, hide under the nearest object (for example a wood pile or staircase) and can stay there shivering for days.
• Let your veterinarian know about the missing pet.
• DO NOT GIVE UP! It is common people who find a missing pet keep the animal and do not alarm the shelter until a few weeks. 
• If someone tells you that they have found your pet, do not let your emotions get the better of you (especially if you have promised a reward for the pet)! Do not give out your home address and arrange to meet in a public place. Never meet up with the person alone!
• If an animal fitting the description of your pet has been found at the other side of the country do not outrule the possibility of it being your pet. Sometimes pets have had a helping human hand in travelling long distances. 
• When you finally find your pet do everything you can to ensure that it never goes missing again! Let a veterinarian microchip your pet, register it, use a collar with your name and contact number on it, fix your garden fence, lock your gates, shovel away piles of snow near the fence, keep your cat inside the house. It is a lot easier to prevent your pet from going missing than go through the heartache of losing your best friend!

There are frequently around 200 dogs and 400 cats in our protection. They all need food, medical care and shelter. Help us help them! Donate a sum that suits You best to the Varjupaikade MTÜ. International payment: Organisation name: Varjupaikade MTÜ. Address: Raba 32, Pärnu 80010, Estonia, Europe IBAN: EE561010220068203017 Bank details: Name of the bank: SEB (AS SEB Pank) The bank address: Tornimäe 2, 15010 Tallinn, Estonia, Europe BIC/ SWIFT code: EEUHEE2X. If you wish to aid a specific shelter, add a keyword to the explanation: Pärnu, Viljandi, Virumaa or Võru.