New Way to Call for Missing Pets

Owners Spread Net Via Recorded Phone Alerts, Other Modern Tools

When Lucy, an Australian shepherd-husky mix, went missing from her Mount Pleasant neighborhood a month ago, her owners reached for every resource in the modern pet owner's playbook.

Dan Wood and Sarah Darnell printed fliers, posted messages on Craigslist, launched a Web site (http://www.lostlucy.com) with an interactive map plotting where Lucy had been seen and started a blog to share details of the search.

And just when they thought they couldn't possibly do more, a friend told them about http://Findtoto.com.

Within hours, 10,000 households in the District and Montgomery County knew that Lucy had disappeared. They knew she had one brown ear and one speckled ear and likes to have her belly rubbed. And they knew whom to call if they spotted Lucy.

The same phone technology that makes political campaign robocalls is now spreading the word about lost pets.

"There's only so much you can do to make a flier jump out at people," Wood said. "They're walking their dog, walking to the Metro and not really paying attention to the stuff that's plastered all over the telephone poles. But a phone call stands out."

http://Findtoto.com is one of several services that harness technology to help people find their pets. The Arizona-based http://Pets911.com allows people to post for free information about missing or found animals. It has links to 9,000 animal shelters, including ones in the D.C. region. http://Findfido.com is a smaller, more personal venture started by Linda Fields of Milford, Pa., in 1998 to help owners.

A small industry has grown around recovering lost pets, said Scott Giacoppo, chief programs officer for the Washington Humane Society. "If their intentions are good -- that is, to reunite the pet with the family -- that's great," he said, but added that people should make sure they are not being taken in.

Giacoppo said people should also remember that old-fashioned methods can yield results. Owners of lost pets should check with shelters, he said, and make their fliers stand out by printing them on fluorescent paper. Pets should have ID tags and be microchipped, he said.

A friend paid the $875 for calls made on Lucy's behalf, since Wood and Darnell are starving law students.

Margaret O'Donnell of Jessup credits the FindToto robocall service with helping to bring home Harley, her 3-year-old German shepherd, after he got loose in November. She said the service had an unexpected benefit: helping her get to know her neighbors, who still ask about Harley.

Tim Krukowski of Leesburg used the service to find Buddha, his German shepherd-Doberman pinscher mix, after the dog slipped away from a friend's home last month. Krukowski was out with a dog tracker he'd hired when he received a call that Buddha had been seen on a golf course not far from where he ran off.