Pet Amber Alert Is Here to Help

Any pet parent knows this horror; you go to let your fur kid inside and they are nowhere to be found. It is a gut wrenching feeling to say the least. This has happened to me on more than one occasion but the most memorable was when someone left the gate open and my German Shepherd Precious was gone. She was my world. My family bred German Shepherd dogs, so Precious was mine since birth. We kind of grew up together. I’ve watched Cesar Millan and think I have dog whisperer capabilities truly because of the connection I had with Precious. She was special, throughout the years my parents would allow only a handful of dogs to live in the house, and Precious was one of them.

Pepper with her Westie house guest, Alex.

You may ask why blog about her now? While pet sitting recently I had a couple gut wrenching occurrences centered around four-legged fur friends. First, Pepper (our 14-year old mutt) was doggy sitting Alex a 13-year old Westie. I was moving the hose and Alex bolted out the gate and I had to chase him down the street; all while wearing flip flops. I did finally catch up to him after taking off my flip flops. Second, not no more than 15 minutes would pass when I was still outside watering my flowers and a lady and a little boy walked by. She asked if I’d seen a little white dog and I answered I have one in the back yard. Her eyes swelled up with excitement until I explained, it was a Westie, I was watching for my cousin. Her shoulders slumped back as she told me they were looking for their Jack Russell Terrier. I told her sorry, I’d been out most of the morning and haven’t seen him. She said thanks and she continued walking up the street. The little boy beside her would continue to bellow out “Scruffy!” as they walked. This immediately brought tears to my eyes.

A couple days would pass and obviously Scruffy still had not been found. To my dismay, Brian took a couple fliers from the dad, and said--we’d do what we can! I knew immediately--I had to do a blog post in hopes of reuniting Scruffy with his family. Unlike when my Precious went missing, today there is the Internet and social media to rely on. You’ve heard of the Amber Alert for missing children and at-risk adults? Well, there’s a pet version, too. Enter Pet Amber Alert for missing cats, dogs and birds. When a pet is lost, Pet Amber Alert uses phones, faxes and social media to alert thousands of neighbors, animal shelters, veterinarians, hospitals, and pet stores in the area the pet was reported missing. The Pet Amber Alert website reports, “this method has an average success rate of 77 percent. We'll post an immediate blast to PetAmberAlert.com accounts on Facebook and Twitter. Share our alert with your own (social media) connections to expand your research.”

Scruffy's Pet Amber Alert.

However, the service isn’t free. The cost is $39.95 to send missing pet posters to 25 local animal shelters, veterinarians and pet businesses; $59.95 to send phone alerts to 250 neighbors; or $99.95 to send both phone alerts and posters. A Premium Plan touted as the "BEST VALUE! Most Successful!" can send calls to 1,000 neighbors and missing pet posters to 100 businesses for $249.99. For a love this strong wouldn’t you buy a Pet Amber Alert, too?

Like in Scruffy’s case they can issue alerts while on vacation. Scruffy’s family was on vacation from Hastings, Neb., when she went missing. “The service will also fax and email a poster of your lost cat, dog or bird to veterinarians, animal shelters and animal control officers within 10 to 100 miles of the location where the animal was last seen,” the website says. “Our system can issue an amber alert to any location in the United States. Simply enter the street address your pet was last seen and we send the alert to this location.”

Also, want to continue too make a difference? If so, bookmark this Pet Amber Alert page and check back periodically to help try and reunite lost pets in your neighborhood. I truly think if Pet Amber Alert existed when Precious went missing--I would've been reunited with my dog companion. Please help us reunite Scruffy with his family from Hastings, and view Scruffy's online Pet Amber Alert.
(Editor's note: I was not paid or thanked in any way for this post. There are no affiliate commissions tied to this service. I am not endorsing or recommending it, because I have not used Pet Amber Alert myself.)

-population-we™ blog post by Becky Bohan Brown

© 2013 population-we, LLC 
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