The team will ask you for the following details and information about the animal.  They will need to know the following:

• Your name, address and a telephone number you can be contacted on (please note - we will not give this out to any owner)
• The breed of the dog or cat, its sex, colour, approximate age and size
• If the animal has any form of identification, such as a collar and tag
• When and where you found the dog or cat

The Lost Dogs & Cats Line team will search our database for any dogs or cats that have been reported missing in the same area.  If they have a match, they will let you know straight away and will contact the owner for you.

There are several options for you to take:

• You may bring the stray dog or cat to us - Our London centre accepts stray dogs and cats 24 hours a day (and between 9am - 5pm at our Old Windsor and Brands Hatch centres).
• You can call your local Animal Warden, who may be able to collect the dog, and in some cases, the cat, from you.

If you choose to keep the dog or cat in your home you should do the following:

• Report the dog or cat to your local authority Animal Warden
• Call Battersea's found line on 020 7627 9245, so that we can search our database for a possible owner.  If we do not find an owner immediately we will keep your report on our database for 28 days and continue searching
• Call all local veterinary surgeries and any other animal rescue organisations in the area to let them know you have the animal
• Take the dog or cat to the local vet, animal hospital or rescue centre to be scanned for a microchip
• Download our found poster on the right hand side of this page and put it up around the area where you found the lost animal

A warning regarding lost cats

Please carefully consider taking a cat into your home because you think it is lost.  Cats tend to roam some distance, and it may not really be lost at all.

You should never feed a cat unless you have been asked to by its owner.  Sometimes food is all a cat will go home for.