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When your pet runs away, it's hard to know what to do first. Call local shelters? Grab a flashlight and search the neighborhood? If your dog or cat doesn't have a microchip, your options can be limited. IDTag.com, an online service, changes that.

Each pet tag purchased on IDTag.com — a variety of adorable cat- and dog-appropriate styles retail for $9.99 — has a serial number engraved on the back. Visit the site to create a pet profile containing your address, phone number and other important data about your pet, including a photo. If your furry BFF happens to run away, you can log on to IDTag.com and a lost-pet bulletin with photos and descriptions will be sent to a network of shelters within 50 miles of your pet's last-known location, as well as more than a dozen lost-pet Web sites. If someone finds your pet, they can plug the serial number from the animal's tag into IDTag.com and pull up your contact information — instantly reuniting your family with your pet.

The Web site offers other support services as well, like a 24-hour hotline and a program to help you create lost pet posters, and it only charges a $6.95 subscription fee per year (after the first year, which is free). But finding your missing pet? Priceless.

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Kate Hogan