How to find your rescue pet's zodiac sign (no birthday needed)

You can find your rescue pet's zodiac sign without a birthday: use either the shelter's estimated birthday or the day your pet came home. Both give a Sun sign, and the arrival day has one advantage over any estimate: it's the date your life together actually began.

Here are the three dates you can use, how to choose between them, and what changes if you go with the arrival day.

Option 1: the estimated birthday

Many shelters and rescues give an estimated date of birth on the adoption paperwork. If it's a specific date, look it up in the dog zodiac signs or cat zodiac signs table and you're done.

If it's only a month or a year, the sign is a guess. A pet "born in October" could be a Libra or a Scorpio, depending on the day. That's when the next option helps.

Option 2: the arrival day

The arrival day (sometimes called a gotcha day or adoption day) is the day your pet came home with you. It's a date you know for sure, and you probably remember it well: the first walk round the new neighbourhood, the first night, the first time they chose a spot on the sofa.

Using the arrival day gives your pet a sign that belongs to your story together. Try it against what you know: a dog who came home in early August and immediately claimed the centre of the rug, waiting to be admired, sounds very Leo.

Option 3: the day you met

Some people count from the day they first met their pet at the shelter, or the day a stray first turned up on the doorstep. If that's the date that matters to you, it works the same way.

How to choose

• You have an exact estimated birthday: use it, or compare it with the arrival day sign and see which one sounds more like your pet.
• You only have a month or year: use the arrival day.
• The arrival day means the most to you: use it. There's no wrong answer in pet astrology.

What an Arrival Day reading looks like

When you get a ZodiaPaws reading with an arrival day, the whole reading is framed around the day your pet came home rather than the day they were born. The free reading gives you their sign and a first look at their personality; the full report adds an Arrival Day certificate to celebrate the date every year.

Want to see how a sign reads in full? Try the Leo dog or the Scorpio cat guide, then get your rescue pet's free reading using their arrival day.