 If you've logged on to Facebook over the past few days, you may have noticed a spike in missing pets in the area. According to preventivevet.com, July 5th is the busiest day at animal shelters due to the stress and anxiety fireworks create in pets. Veterinarians believe in most missing animal cases, social media works best, especially if you utilize it correctly. Encourage people to send those to business pages for veterinary clinics and rescue organizations. Ralph also stresses the importance of keeping information up to date. Take current pictures of your pet so in the unfortunate event they do become lost, you've got a current picture, a good face shot and a good body shot as well will help ID a dog and know about what size they are. The more information you can give us if a pet goes missing the better. Even though fireworks are a major factor in missing pets, there are many more. The days are longer and the weather is warmer. Dogs are just out with their families. Well it's just the weather effect so when storms come and dogs get frightened by lightning and thunder and things like that, sometimes they'll take off looking for shelter, get disoriented and have a hard time finding their way back home. Ralph reminds all pet owners to remain cautious all the time, but especially during the summer. If you can have them in a confined space, if you have them in a kennel or a big open dog lot, something like that, if you know there's going to be bad weather, thunderstorms or fireworks, we encourage you to bring those dogs inside if possible. ID on the pet is going to be helpful. And even though most veterinarians give the standard spay and neuter advice, it actually does more than keep the animal population under control. Because I've seen dogs even just where we live that I know they don't live at a certain house and they're wandering down because there's somebody who's issued the hormonal invitation for that to happen. So really spaying and neutering really benefits the dog. Keeps them safe, keeps them home, keeps them out of the road. Reporting in Pikeville for EKB News, I'm Shelby Still.