What to put on a pet emergency card (and what to leave off)
A pet emergency card should answer the first question quickly: are animals inside, and who are they? Put the types and number of pets where responders can see them. Keep detailed care instructions available to the person who may actually take over — but think carefully before printing private phone numbers, home-access instructions, or your full care plan on a front door.
Key takeaways
- Put the types and number of animals on a visible door card.
- Names and basic identifying details can help someone understand who they are looking for.
- Keep feeding, medication and veterinary information together for the person who may care for them.
- Do not put instructions for getting into your home on a publicly visible card.
- ASPCA recommends a rescue alert sticker near the front door with the types and number of pets and the veterinarian's name and number.
- Doggy takes a more private approach: the door shows the animals; detailed care information sits behind the QR code.
Start with what a stranger needs to know at the door
Imagine someone reaches your home because you did not come back.
Maybe your daughter asked a neighbor to check.
Maybe a trusted contact arrived.
Maybe an emergency responder is already there for another reason.
The first useful fact is not your dog's feeding schedule.
It is:
There are animals in this home.
Then:
How many?
What kind?
A visible card should make those answers easy to find.
For example:
1 dog — Rosie, Golden Retriever
2 cats — Milo and June
If there are several animals, list all of them.
Do not make someone discover the second cat hours later because the card only mentioned the dog.
What the ASPCA recommends on a rescue alert sticker
The ASPCA recommends placing a rescue alert sticker on or near the front door where rescue workers can see it.
Its current disaster-preparedness guidance says the sticker should include:
- the types of pets in the home;
- the number of pets;
- the name of the veterinarian;
- the veterinarian's phone number.
ASPCA also currently offers a free Pet Safety Pack containing pet rescue window and door stickers.
That is a strong, simple baseline.
Doggy agrees with the most important public part: tell people what animals are inside and how many.
We make one different privacy choice with the veterinarian's phone number.
We put that information behind the QR code rather than printing it on the door.
Why?
Because rescue workers are not the only people who can read a front door.
Neighbors can.
Delivery drivers can.
Visitors can.
Anyone walking past can.
The vet's number is useful to the person actually dealing with your animals. It does not need to be visible to everyone before anything has happened.
What we would put on the visible card
For a door card, keep the public layer short.
Type and number of animals
This is the essential information.
1 dog
2 cats
1 dog, 1 cat
A responder should not need to scan anything just to learn that animals may be inside.
Their names
Names make the card more practical.
"Two cats" is useful.
"Milo and June" is better for the person trying to find two specific cats.
Breed or another simple identifier
Breed can help distinguish the animal someone is looking for.
For mixed-breed animals or pets where breed is not useful, use another concise identifier if the card supports it.
Do not turn the front of the card into a biography.
The job is identification.
A QR code for the care information
The visible card can point to a second layer.
With Doggy, that QR code leads to the information the owner prepared about the animals.
That is where detailed instructions belong.
What belongs behind the code
The person who takes over care needs much more than a firefighter needs from the front door.
They may need to know:
- what each animal eats;
- the feeding routine you wrote down;
- medication information you recorded from your veterinarian's instructions;
- which veterinarian knows them;
- other care details you prepared.
Doggy's guardian page opens from a link.
The person you chose does not need to install Doggy.
They do not need an account or password.
They open the link and read the page.
This separation matters.
The door answers "who is here?"
The care page answers "what do I do now?"
Those are different questions for different moments.
What we would leave off the front door
More information is not always better.
A pet emergency card sits in a place other people can potentially see.
Treat it like public information.
Your home address
The card is already attached to the home.
Printing the address on the visible card adds little there.
Doggy does not print your address on the card.
Your telephone number
There may be situations where an owner deliberately wants a public phone number on a rescue sticker.
But it is not required for Doggy's card to work.
Doggy does not print your phone number on the card.
The chosen contact receives the relevant information through the alert flow.
Instructions for entering the home
Do not print:
Key under the flowerpot.
Garage code 1842.
Back door is unlocked.
Spare key with neighbor in apartment 3.
That information can solve an access problem by creating a security problem.
Doggy keeps home-entry instructions behind a separate verification step.
They cannot be reached from the QR code printed on the card.
Someone scanning the door card does not get instructions for entering your home.
Do not put medication directions on the public card
If Bella needs medication, the person caring for her may absolutely need the instructions you recorded.
The person walking past your front door does not.
Keep those details in the care information.
And write them so another person can follow what your veterinarian already prescribed.
Doggy is not a place to invent veterinary instructions.
Do not change a dose, timing, or treatment because you are creating an emergency card.
Record the instructions you were actually given.
Later in this series, we will cover how to write pet medication and feeding instructions so somebody else can follow them without guessing.
The card should work when you cannot explain it
This is the test that makes an emergency card useful.
Do not imagine yourself standing next to the person scanning it.
Imagine you are unavailable.
Can they tell how many animals should be there?
Can they identify them?
Can the person responsible for care reach the instructions you prepared?
Can they see the feeding routine?
Can they find the veterinarian information?
If the answer depends on you answering your phone and explaining everything from memory, the card is not finished.
A good card transfers context.
Door card and wallet card solve different moments
Doggy Premium prints one A4 sheet for the door and two smaller cards for a wallet or pocket.
The door card helps when someone reaches the home.
The wallet card can help connect the fact that you have animals waiting at home when you are away from them.
That distinction matters for people who live alone with pets.
If you are unexpectedly taken to hospital, the problem may not begin with someone standing at your front door.
It may begin with someone realizing:
There is a dog at home and she has not been let out since this morning.
The wallet card gives that situation a path back to the animal information.
A QR code should not become a shortcut into the house
A QR code can carry a lot of information.
That does not mean it should carry everything.
Doggy's printed code uses a random token and is not published as a page people are expected to discover.
More importantly, the printed code cannot reveal the separate instructions about getting into your home.
That boundary is deliberate.
The person who needs to know that Rosie eats twice a day does not automatically need the same access as the person you authorized to enter the property.
Keep care information and home access as separate permissions.
Update the card when the animals change
A beautiful card with old information is worse than a plain card with current information.
Review it when:
- you adopt another animal;
- an animal is no longer in the home;
- the veterinarian changes;
- the care routine changes;
- medication instructions change;
- the person responsible for emergency care changes.
If the visible card says 2 cats, there should actually be two cats to look for.
If you evacuate with your animals during a disaster, ASPCA recommends marking the rescue alert sticker "EVACUATED" when time allows so responders do not search for animals who are no longer inside.
What we would suggest
Use two layers.
On the door: enough information to tell someone that animals are inside and identify who they are looking for.
Behind the code: the practical information the person caring for them needs.
Keep home-entry instructions separate from both.
That gives you a card that is useful without treating your front door like a public emergency file.
If you want to see exactly how Doggy separates those layers, see The card.
Then complete the larger pet emergency plan, because the card only works when an actual person knows what to do with the information.
Frequently asked questions
What should I put on a pet emergency card?
Start with the types and number of animals. Names and a simple identifier such as breed can also help. Keep detailed feeding, medication and veterinary information available to the person who may take over care.
Should I put my veterinarian's phone number on a pet alert sticker?
ASPCA recommends including the veterinarian's name and phone number on a rescue alert sticker. Doggy makes a different privacy choice: we keep the veterinarian information behind the QR code instead of printing the phone number on a publicly visible door card.
Should I put my phone number on a pets-inside sticker?
You can choose to on a traditional sticker, but think about who can see it. Doggy's printed card does not show your phone number.
Should a pet emergency card include the key location or door code?
We would not put home-access instructions on a publicly visible card. Doggy keeps those instructions behind separate verification, and they cannot be reached from the printed QR code.
What if I have cats, not a dog?
Doggy works for any animal. The visible card can list the types, number, names and identifying details of the animals in your home.
Where should I put a pet rescue card?
ASPCA recommends placing a rescue alert sticker on or near the front door where rescue workers can see it. Doggy also provides smaller wallet cards for the separate situation where something happens to you while you are away from home.
The bottom line
A pet emergency card should make the first minutes easier, not publish your whole household plan.
Put the animals where people can see them: what kind, how many, and enough information to identify them. Put detailed care information where the person responsible for them can reach it.
Keep your address, phone number and instructions for entering the home off Doggy's public-facing card.
The goal is simple: if you cannot come home, somebody should be able to find out who is waiting there and what they need next.