Collaboration to reunite pets with owners
Cats Protection has announced that it will now be working alongside Animal Search UK to help reunite pets with their owners.
The charity's lost and found pages for each individual branch and centre will now take people directly to the Animal Search UK website.
Animal Search UK is a free site that helps reunite lost pets with their owners. With more than 20,000 volunteers, it has one of the largest networks of Pet Patrollers in the UK.
When a pet is reported as missing, Animal Search UK alerts its Pet Patrollers in that area, who will keep an eye out.
Tom Watkins, a former police officer who founded Animal Search UK, explained that the website enables users to add up to four photos of a missing family pet, or a pet that has been found straying.
It also has a sophisticated mapping system that automatically matches lost and found reports, dependant on their location in relation to one another.
"In the past, despite the best efforts of many, there have been occasions whereupon a missing pet has been adopted after being rescued and the original owners have been none the wiser," he said.
"Particularly if the pet did not have a microchip which confirms the owner's details."
While recommending microchipping as a safe and permanent means of identification, Cats Protection encourages owners who's cats are already microchipped to ensure their contact details are up to date.
Lee Bishop, Cats Protection's website manager, commented on the collaboration: "Our branches and centres have been offered the opportunity to direct people from their lost and found pages to the Animal Search UK site so that they can register pets on a national database.
"We hope that this will increase the chances of pets being reunited with their owners."
Veterinary practices are being urged to help owners safely dispose of any unused and expired pet medicines - not just antibiotics - during November's Animal Medicines Amnesty. 
