Your pet has a 1 in 3 chance of becoming lost during its lifetime. According to petfbi.org, one of the most successful techniques for retrieving lost pets is creating and distributing paper flyers. Read on to learn what 3 things you should have on hand in order to create effective lost pet flyers in a hurry.

A High-Resolution Image Of Your Pet

Every doting pet owner is bound to have at least a few pictures of their furry friend saved on their computer or stored in their phone's camera roll. What most pet owners don't have, though, is a high-resolution photo of their pet. 

The resolution of an image is measured in pixels per inch (PPI). A 96 PPI image will look perfectly fine on a phone or computer screen, but when enlarged will begin to lose quality and become blurry.

A lost pet flyer has but a few seconds to deliver information to its passers-by. You want the image of your pet to be crisp and clean, and big enough to see from the road for people traveling in vehicles.

In order to accomplish this, you'll want a photo of your pet that has a resolution of 300 PPI. A resolution of 300 PPI offers enough pixels per inch of image so that individual pixels can't be detected when printed out on your flyers.

Most smartphones aren't capable of high-resolution photos, so consider booking an appointment with a professional pet photographer so you've got the image you need to print out effective flyers if your pet gets lost.

Contact Info For A 24 Hour Printing Service

In the event that your pet goes missing, the last thing you need is a printing shop telling you that they'll have your flyers ready in a week. Pets are capable of traveling an amazing amount of distance by foot -- one dog traveled 2,000 miles to find his way home after becoming lost -- so you need a printing company that can crank out next day flyers.

If your pet gets lost, you're going to be scared for them and possibly not thinking very clearly. You'll want to be out looking for your cat or dog, not sifting through a phone book trying to find the fastest printing company.

Be ready by locating a 24 hour printing service now. Store the company's contact information in a safe spot so you can get your flyers printed as quickly as possible if your pet happens to get lost.

Sheet Protectors

Before you start posting your printed lost pet posters around town, you'll want to make sure that they remain readable through all kinds of weather. Get yourself a stack of plastic sheet protectors and keep them with your other "just in case Fido gets lost" necessities. 

Get some in the size of a standard sheet of paper (8.5" by 11"), and then some larger ones for hanging your flyers at major intersections and other high-traffic locations. For the larger sheet protectors, shoot for 11" by 17", but contact your printing service before you buy to make sure that they can produce flyers of that size.

Not only will sheet protectors keep your lost pet flyers dry, but they'll also prevent the corners of them from curling in the wind. 

Millions of pets are separated from their owners every single year. If you're a pet owner, you've got to have a plan in place should this unfortunate occurrence happen to your furry pal. Be prepared to act quickly by keeping the above 3 things on hand so you can distribute eye-catching lost pet flyers around your city as soon as possible after your pet goes missing.