I found an egg on my porch with the note “please take care of it”. I don’t know what Pokémon it will be, what do I do?

Your first step either way is to take it to a breeder, a professor, or a pokémon center. The reason why is because all three have the ability to identify the egg, so if you were thinking of adopting it yourself, then you’ll need to know what’s inside it in order to prepare for its hatching. Even the exact temperature it needs to be at in order to hatch depends on what species of egg it is, so you quite literally can’t do anything until you know for certain what you’re dealing with on a literal level.

Once you’ve taken the egg to any of these three facilities, you have two choices. If you can take the egg, you have the option to do so. Simply follow the breeder, professor, or Nurse Joy’s advice on care up to and immediately after birth.

If you can’t take the egg or if you don’t wish to take the egg, you can leave it with them. Breeding centers, pokémon centers, and regional professors’ laboratories are actually the designated “safe haven” spots, or places where you can safely leave pokémon you can’t care for. (Why someone left an egg on your doorstep, I’m not sure, but that’s neither here nor there at this point.) Once left in the care of any of these three sets of capable hands, they will proceed to hatch the pokémon and care for them until they’re ready to be rehomed with a willing trainer, so you can trust your local breeder, professor, or Nurse Joy with the baby.

Either way, I wouldn’t recommend attempting to find whoever left the egg. It’s very clear that the person who did so doesn’t wish to care for the pokémon inside it (for reasons that could very well be completely valid, so please don’t take that to mean I’m accusing them of negligence), and if, on the very slim off-chance, the egg was illegally obtained, a reputable breeder, researcher, or Nurse Joy would be able to tell. (Pokémon professionals have a network set up for sharing information on poacher activity. If even an egg is missing from a habitat, we would know about it.)

Best of luck with whatever you choose to do, anonymous!