Shock scrambles memory within hours. Owners who felt certain about timings in the morning find themselves unsure by evening, and details that felt too small to matter — a van heard idling, a gate found unlatched — turn out to be the details investigators and neighbours ask about first. Sit down and write her record straight away, before phoning around or posting anywhere, and write facts rather than conclusions: what you know, when you knew it, and what you only suspect, kept in separate lines so nobody later mistakes a suspicion for a sighting.
Start With Her Time Window
Open the record with as narrow an honest window as you can give. Write when she was last seen, by whom, and exactly where in the garden she was at that moment. Then write the moment you realised, and what triggered the realisation — a meal untouched, a call unanswered, a search that found her usual shelter empty. Everything between those two times is the window in which she was taken, so work through it minute by minute: who was home, who called at the house, what deliveries arrived, and when you last heard or saw her during that stretch. If another household member or a neighbour saw her later than you did, add their time and their words to the record, because a narrower window changes where camera footage and witness accounts are worth chasing.
What Was Seen, Heard and Noticed
Next, capture the scene around her while it is still fresh. Note any sounds you remember — a vehicle stopping, a door closing, dogs reacting, her own voice — with the rough time each one belongs to. Record vehicles noticed near your home: colour, type, direction of travel and any part of a registration you genuinely saw, written as partial rather than completed from hope. Do the same for people noticed: approximate build, clothing and direction, without dressing a glimpse up into a description you did not really get. Note the state of the garden as you found it — gates open or closed, fences disturbed, her carrier or bowls moved — and photograph that scene before tidying anything. Ask neighbours the same day about doorbell cameras and dashcams covering your street, because footage is routinely overwritten within days, and write down who agreed to check and when.
Her Description, Photo and Chip Details To Hand
Finish the record with the pack everyone you contact will need. Describe her in words a stranger could search by: size, coat colour and pattern, markings that set her apart, her eye colour, whether she wore a collar and what it looked like, and any feature such as a kinked tail or a clipped ear tip. Attach a clear recent photo showing her face and her markings, and note which photo it is so the same one goes to every contact. Write her microchip details in full — the chip number, the registry holding her record and the phone numbers registered against it — and keep that number for the police, the registry and veterinary contacts rather than printing it on public posts, where it is your private proof that she is yours. Hand the whole record, unchanged, to the police, the registry when you flag her as taken, and local vets and rescues, then add any new sighting to it with its date and time rather than starting again. A record built this carefully can feed an alert in minutes. Her alert goes to nearby owners through Lost Pet Alert System in KinsLe, and anyone who finds her can reach you with a direct message about her whereabouts.