The local Amber Alert for lost pets

TThe idea first came to Clayton Gladieux during a hectic night searching for a lost dog in 2014; earlier that evening, a friend had let her rescued Labrador, Ramsay, out into the garden to do his business. Ramsay was frightened by a car and fled into the darkness.

“We freaked out,” Gladieux tells the INDY from his office in Raleigh. “You just don’t think it’s going to happen to you, and when it does happen, you don’t know what to do, right? It’s hectic and time is running out. It’s an overwhelming feeling.”

“I was on the phone Googling what to do if you lose a pet,” he continues. “For two hours I just drove around, looking for her, knocking on doors and calling her name.”

Ramsay found his way home the next morning, but Gladieux, then 24, still felt there had to be a more efficient way to quickly spread the word about a lost pet. He had wanted to start his own business for some time, he says, but hadn’t thought of anything until now. When Ramsey ran away, he came up with the idea that there should be a central database for pet owners to refer to if a pet got away.

So with an initial investment of just $5,000, PawBoost – initially called FindingFido, then renamed due to the ubiquity of “Fido” pet companies – was created, in effect, an “Amber Alert” for lost pets.

According to the Animal Humane Society, one in three pets goes missing during its lifetime; that’s about 10 million lost pets in the United States each year. That estimate will come as no surprise to anyone who is a member of NextDoor or a local mailing list that regularly posts missing pets of all shapes and sizes. If an animal is found without identification information or a way to contact its owner, it ends up in a shelter. According to the ASPCA, about 920,200 animals are euthanized in shelters each year; more than half of those are cats, while about 390,000 are dogs.

PawBoost, which says it has organized more than 1,796,700 lost pet reunions worldwide, works like an extended mailing list server: Users upload a post about lost pets, which is then shared on the area’s PawBoost Facebook page, distributed to PawBoost app users, added to a large database of lost pets, and sent out alerts to local “rescue squads” – volunteer groups made up of local shelter staff, veterinarians and animal lovers.

According to the PawBoost website, 3,318,592 people in their area have signed up for PawBoost alerts. A simple “missing” post is optimized and amplified. Anyone who has either found a lost pet or helped someone else find a lost pet knows how emotional the experience is. Pets are part of the family.

My own cat and dog both came into my life on zigzag paths—the dog (Penny) from the Wake Forest rescue Saving Grace; the cat (Juniper) literally, as a street cat in Brooklyn, constantly craving food and cans of tuna. Both have fundamentally changed my perception of the world and other living things in it. On my daily walks, seeing the faces of many people light up when they come within range of a dog is one of those powerful affirmations of humanity that make life seem both generous and productive.

And while I didn’t join a local “rescue” after speaking with Gladieux, it’s not at all unreasonable that someone would spend their time looking for such reunions. The PawBoost Facebook page in Raleigh alone has over 9,000 followers.

“There are all these people who are animal lovers and want to help – there’s a big community aspect to this whole thing,” says Gladieux. “This person’s avatar is literally my mom. If you go to her Facebook, all you see are animal photos.”

Daily “Happy Tail” updates on the site are testament to both the community and the usefulness of the platform. Take, for example, the report of Muffin, a white cat with a steely gaze who jumped over a porch railing in Ken Caryl, Colorado, and was found by a neighbor a mile and a half away. “I’ve also posted on Facebook, Nextdoor, and Ring,” Muffin’s owner wrote in a recent Happy Tail update. “PawBoost seems to have a wider reach in the community.”

Or this fornicating pug from San Bernardino, California: “Silas ran away looking for his girlfriend,” the owner wrote. “My neighbor saw my missing person report on PawBoost and contacted me almost immediately. Silas is now safely home.”

For Gladieux, who now employs around a dozen people, the bet has paid off. The company, he says, is bootstrapped and has no official value, but sales are in the low millions. As a bonus, he also gets to see some positive news.

Gladieux says human error, animal curiosity and loud noises — especially fireworks or a loud car like the one that scared his friend Ramsay’s dog — are the most common causes of a pet getting away. Collars with name tags help, as do microchips, as long as the registration information is current. But nothing replaces a Good Samaritan who is willing to step in and try to bring a pet home.

Marianna Chambers is one such Good Samaritan. When she lived in Garner several years ago, a “super friendly, beautiful dog” wandered into her yard, she tells me over the phone in a soft Southern accent. Chambers and her family spent a month searching for the owner of the dog, whom her children named “Goldie.” Eventually, her PawBoost post made it to the owner, who had just moved to a new home when the dog ran off, unsure of his surroundings.

The family grew fond of the dog, Chambers says, but the story had a happy ending: They stayed a part of Goldie’s life and became dog sitters. They even looked after the dog one Christmas.

“It was a really beautiful story because we stayed involved,” says Chambers. “The dog was always very happy to see us – and always happy to see his owner when she came back.”

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