The RSPCA has announced it has teamed up with Animal Search UK to help reunited missing animals with their owners.
If a stray comes into RSPCA care via its team of officers, the animal will now be registered on the Animal Search website, which will automatically match any found pets with a lost animal of the same description.
Members of the public who contact the RSPCA will also be encouraged to register them in the same way.
This comes as Animal Search UK figures show that 58 pets in Swindon have been registered missing in the past 12 months.
One of those pets is epilepsy therapy dog Stan who provided support to 21-year-old Harry Albans for his condition, before he went missing during a dog attack in Cheney Manor in February.
Read: Help find missing Swindon rescue dog who helps student with epilepsy
"We miss Stan so much and this last week has been very difficult for Harry as his seizures increased," Harry's mother Rachel, who was walking Stan and his brother Snoop at the time.
"Snoop is heartbroken and needs his brother back as much as we do. If you do see any animals resembling Stan please try and take a photo, report using poster mobile numbers or message on Facebook."
For full details of how to help, or to report a sighting head to the dedicated Facebook page that has been set up for Stan's search.
Another family who would've benefitted from this partnership is Katie Jones, 30, and her mother Ann Jones, 67, who lost their beloved Bengal cat Finn on the same day the cat's sister Fleur was killed by a car.
Finn went missing in February from the Queensfield area and had been missing for 10 weeks causing the family who never stopped looking for him a lot of distress.
Read: Family devastated after cat goes missing on same day sister is killed by car
At the time Katie said: "We have done everything we can to locate him but as yet we are still hoping he will return to us.
"Losing any pet is always a difficult time but to lose two on the same night has made this extremely upsetting."
But, after a long search Katie got a phone call on Saturday April 16 to tell her that the wayward cat had been found and he is now home safe and well. 
It is hoped that this new partnership between the animal charity and the lost pet organisation will mean that families like Stan's and Finn's are reunited with their pets, at all, in Stan's case, and quicker, in Finn's.
With 23 years’ experience in the field, Animal Search’s website is completely free and owners don’t have to pay to register their pet as missing.
A 24-hour customer advice and information line is available and additional services such as specialist publicity campaigns and a fully uniformed missing pet search team can also be accessed, often using your existing pet insurance policy.
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