Who Saves Our Little Darlings And How?

I recently read an article in the Frederick News Post “Home and Family” section about a woman and her dogs. The Real Pet Detective was an article about a woman whose job is finding other people’s lost animals. She and her dogs help people who have had their pets taken or are missing. She had some amazing rescue stories and some cool techniques for finding these animals. I can tell she has a real compassion for what she does. She also has a dog training business (www.ljttraining.com).


After reading this story it made me wonder just what makes people get into this line of work and how? They need a passion for animals and a love of helping out, granted, but what else? I would guess that one would have to be good at interacting with and controlling animals. Also, a person would have to be good at approaching animals and keeping them calm since in many cases a lost or hurt animal can become very frightened or may strike out with a fit of violence. I imagine that she needs medical care and temperament knowledge and a set of quick reflexes.


After seeing Jim Carey’s movie, Pet Detective, you might think a pet detective just wants your money and is a total fake but in truth she has admitted she would rather she didn’t have to have this job. She wished there was no reason for her to be one. She cares very deeply for those she takes care for and those she is looking for in all cases. She asks clients to pay what they can afford.


I image this could be quite hard as many animals are lost because they were chasing something (a piece of string, a car, a butterfly). The animal could easily become injured and more then likely very scared. One must go about getting them back very cleverly and cautiously.


On a personal note I know this first hand. I LOVE my cats and am obsessive about them so about three months after we got them in the summer I was calling my baby boy and looking everywhere for him but had no luck. He was nowhere to be found. My brother said I was being stupid to be freaking but I didn’t care. I informed my mom (who also could not find him). I went outside (he’s an indoor cat) and started calling him. I began to hear a crying mew, very unusual for my cat. I started following his crying and saw him in my neighbors’ woods.. He always comes running to me when he sees and hears me, but this time he ran away. We walked through rocks, thorns and bushes. He had decided that he felt safer in a groundhog hole. He was acting very weird and refused to come out so as my mom tried to coax him out I ran home got shoes for us, cat food and toys trying to get him to come to me. When I returned we tried everything and finally he began to climb out a little and we grabbed him. We had been outside in the woods for about an hour and were covered in dirt, bugs, plant, fur and sweat.


W e found that my dad had left the door open for him to get out, and we also found out that our neighbor was having her yard redone. The cat had never been out before so, when the gardener people came and turned on mowers and blowers and everything else big, loud and scary to a little fluff like him, that scared the living daylights out of him. He was weird for few days and still become skittish around noise, but he’s better now. Actually he pleads to go out these days.


I was lucky that I didn’t have to call on someone like this woman, but many people are not so lucky and sometimes never do find their pets. This woman does a lot of good and keeps families happy with her rescues.