Lost Pet Resources - testimonials

While I had my back turned, my indoor cat Penelope escaped from my fenced front yard one afternoon. Since she only has supervised outdoor privileges, she has no idea what was beyond the fence. I started to look in my neighbors yards and underneath cars all while calling her name. I came home hoping that she would just show up at the door. After the first sleepless night, I went online to look for some help. I clicked on to the Missing Pet Partnership website and looked under "find a pet detective". That's where I found Amy Adams who runs Lost Pet Resources. I emailed Amy right away asking for help. She promptly returned my email the next morning and I set up a phone consultation for that afternoon. During our phone consultation, Amy explained the behavior for lost indoor cats versus lost outdoor cats. She explained the "silent factor ", when cats are in hiding and not making a sound even if it hears a familiar voice. I didn't want to waste any more time risking Penelope's life. I started making my rounds in the neighborhood to see if anyone had seen her. I wasn't more than a half hour later when I received a call from the lady who saw Penelope in her yard! She said she thinks Penelope is in her back yard underneath her shed! When I got there, she pointed to the shed and gave me a flash light to look underneath the shed. Sure enough, it was her! Scared and wide eyed not making a sound even though I had called her name she was deep in the silent factor! After prodding underneath the shed she slowly made her way out. If it wasn't for Amy's helpful insight and experience in finding lost pets, I doubt I would have found Penelope on my own.

I volunteered my time helping Missing Pet Partnership give free consultations to people who lost their pets over the 4th of July. Being the only (local) MAR Technician that specializes in missing cat, I consulted with the majority of cat owners. Here is the report from Kat Albrecht on the results.

"There were 16 cats reported lost and only 14 dogs reported lost. The fantastic news is that 13 of those 16 cats were all found, only 3 are still missing! I think we will have a strong case of saying that the printed information, the verbal advice that we gave, the posters we gave, and the encouragement we provided likely helped these cat owners to understand how and where to search for their missing cats. We can certainly compare this recovery rate with a study that Ohio State University conducted on lost cats. I am fairly positive that we will be able to prove that more people recover their lost cats when offered lost pet assistance than those not offered any assistance at all."

Neko .. FOUND!

Attached to a leash and trapped for 16 days behind a shed in the blackberries!

I recently traveled home to see family. Right before I left, Neko got sick and was placed on medication. I found a sitter for her while I was gone for 4 days on vacation. I flew back for work on Aug 2nd… I called the cat sitter, and he told me she disappeared.

I then found a woman who consults on lost pets, and has a sweet search dog Harley- he's trained like a bomb dog: if there's any cat, he'll find it, no scent required! I met with Amy face-to-face after she read the above email (forwarded on by me and the pet-finding volunteer folks). We sat down to coffee and discussed the layout of the home, did a kitty profile on Neko. She asked hundreds of questions about the area, the circumstances, and how the sitter and HIS cats behave. I answered what I could, she was very concerned about the vast number of variables: foreign environment, two other cats, the leash issue, the not-1oo% issue, the 4 level home with lots of nooks and crannies, the open door and window, AND a wooded ravine two houses down.

Harley showed up in spades with his Search Dog vest, and went to work. He searched the whole home and identified the likely port of exit (the window). Then, we searched the whole yard, neighborhood, and tried to get into the gulch. It took hours, and was raining and miserable. Harley was a trooper and sniffed right through it. We didn't find Neko, but narrowed it down to some blackberry brambles in the sitters yard by his shed (Harley was very excited, and Amy thought she may have heard one feeble mew). We also thought we saw with a set of eyes (well, Amy did… I couldn't be sure. Everywhere I looked, my brain placed images of poor Neko too still with lifeless eyes…). Amy explained that the brambles would need to be searched more thoroughly and should be cut back to aid in that.

I couldn't resist taking a flashlight out (use it to find "eye shine") and trying my luck with the brambles. I scanned everywhere I could see, walked inside the shed (where the dog got excited and Amy thought she heard noise). NOTHING. I called her name a few times, but not because I believed it would matter. I figured she just wasn't there, and if she was, too scared to ask for help… or dead.

I was nearly out of the garden and just said "Neko." Mew. What? I froze. "Neko honey?" Mew mew.

"I follow the sound of this STRONG CRY and just keep calling her name, and hearing her call back. I walk to the end of the cut-back portion of the brambles. I part the brambles (bare armed) and stare into the face of a black cat… MY black cat. She was sitting 5 feet from the end of the cut path at the base of a bush. Her leash was coiled around the stump of a particularly successful bit of blackberry bramble, effectively pinning her in place. She was tangled there for days, up to 16 of them. And now she's safe. SHE'S SAFE.

I don't need the vet to tell me she's fine (a little tachycardic, but she's stressed out). We come home, and I can't leave the car because EVERYONE is calling to congratulate me on finding her! Amy the Detective, my mom, and a co-worker.

So, we THANK EVERYONE - everyone who worried, or who asked, or who prayed, or who hugged me when I broke down crying over her. Thank you Amy. Thank you HARLEY! Thank you, God.

Dr. Monica, Tacoma, Wa.

( complete blog: http://phoenixwing.blogspot.com/2009/08/blog-post.html )

Our exotic cat Duma had been misssing for 6 days. He is a 3 year old, male, Egyptian Mau house cat and the outdoors is very scary to him. We think he escaped through the garage as he had learned to open the door from the house into the garage. After a week misssing I knew we had to change our strategy, if we ever hoped to see Duma again and then I found Amy.

As soon as I started talking to her and learning more about how cats go into survival mode when they are displaced from their comfort zone, I knew we had a great chance of finding Duma. With all of the information Amy had given us about cat behaviour and telling us that he was probably alot closer than we realized, we found Duma in the craw space under our house that night. We had only been in our house 1 year and never even realized their was a craw space. However, the information provided by Amy gave us a new way of thinking and approach to finding Duma. He had found a small openning behind some bushes on the side of our house and found safety staying in the craw space. Duma had gone into survival mode and had been there for a week.

We had spoken to Amy in the afternoon for a 2 hour consultation and we found Duma that night. Calling Amy was the best decision I made and we have Duma back safe and sound.

Carrie B (Lake Oswego, Oregon)

Frankin -- Home after 51 days!!!!

I wanted to let you know we just found Franklin!!! He is skinny and stinky, but looks OK otherwise!

A few hours ago I received a call from a woman that lives in the building next to us. She saw a grey cat run into a storage room in the parking garage. She remembered our sign (posted right outside of the garage!) and called me. When I described Franklin, everything matched up! She was able to close the door and lock him in the room. Josh went right down and confirmed it was him. He was able to get him in the cat carrier and back to our apartment.

He is eating a lot and meowing and REALLY wants love!! He will not leave our side and wants us both in the room with him!

The crazy thing is that he was in the garage the we had identified as the #1 spot we thought he would go. The woman said the room smelled like cat pee, so he was probably in there for awhile( if not the whole time). I cannot believe it!

Thanks you so much for all of your help! We couldn't have done it with out you!

Also, any idea of how to get cat musk out of fur? Just joking....well sort of--he is very ripe!

Karena Seattle, Wa.