We’ve always had three dogs. The abandoned ones no one cares about seem to find us. A few times it’s been necessary to find them long after they’ve moved in.
Like the time (before social media) a Schnauzer, Daisy — who we agreed to foster for a weekend and lived with us another 17 years — learned to bump the gate on our side deck to open it and led our golden retriever off. Or how she learned to climb a tree to get over the fence in the back yard. Long nights driving the area, passing out hundreds of flyers, canvassing neighborhoods, attaching large color posters to telephone polls. Oh, the worry.
We recently helped a couple find their missing dog, who went missing when they were broadsided in a traffic accident, the car rolled, and their dog was thrown from the car. Our hearts went out to them. She didn’t have a name tag. Nor was she chipped. It took two weeks until she was spotted and reunited with her family. Traps, flyers, knocking on doors, answering calls from kind strangers who thought they may have seen her. Luckily, it paid off thanks to the goodness of strangers who kept an eye out. It took all the above plus a handful of local TV news stories.
Our experiences pale in comparison to what this couple went through for the love of Katie, their border collie missing in the Montana wilderness.
Anyone who’s ever lost a pet can relate to this story and the lengths people will go to to find their fur kids when they go missing.
PS — If you don’t have a NYT account, you can sign up for free with an email address. Great reunion video at the bottom of the NYT story linked below.
NON PAYWALL copy of this story (without additional photos & video: news.yahoo.com/…
UPDATE: A recently posted ABC News report on this story is posted below
www.nytimes.com/...
After a late night at a stock-car race, Carole and Verne King returned to their dog-friendly hotel in Kalispell, Mont., and made a devastating discovery.
Their 7-year-old Border collie, Katie, was no longer in the room. She had apparently managed to unlatch the door, possibly spooked by a thunderstorm that had swept through the area. At the front desk, an attendant said she had seen an anxious dog bolt out the front door hours before.
The Kings were stunned. In the small city of 23,000 people that backs up to the sprawling wilderness near Glacier National Park, surrounded by forests and fields, where would they even start looking?
Over the next 57 days, the couple set out on a desperate search that included night-vision goggles, animal-tracking cameras and horse manure brought in from the family’s farm in Eastern Washington. Ms. King, a postal carrier, quit her job.
Getting pets chipped is essential. That way, if animal control or a stranger find them, they can be scanned at a vet office or local animal control office. Make sure you register the chip online and the information with the chip company is always current. They only cost about $15-20, but they’re worth every penny if a pet goes missing.
Name tags with contact info are a quick ticket home. Some people don’t know to have them scanned for chips.
BTW, if you ever have a pet go missing here are some tips:
Posters should be colorful. Neon green is a good color. Catches the eye. Some people will paste a flyer on top of a poster size and write “Lost Dog (sometimes including breed) or Lost Cat in large letters with a Sharpie above and “Reward,” their phone number below. This makes it easier for people driving in cars to notice it and grab a number without having to find a place to park.
There are two sites that send lost pet flyers to vet offices in your area:
LostMyDoggie.com
LostMyKitty.com
ericlewis0 kindly provided about another site, Pet FBI. There is a LOT of helpful information on what to do if your pet goes missing:
Social media sites include:
nextdoor.com (for individual neighborhoods/areas)
Facebook & Craigslist round out the social media sites.
There are good people who care about animals and will keep an eye out.