Technology helps lost pets find their way home

The rise of social media and the advent of smart phones further expanded the repertoire of ways to find lost pets.

Social sites help the search

A new iPhone app, "Community Leash," allows users to send an alert to other users when pets go missing.

On the flip side, if you find a lost animal, you can check local postings and even take a photo with your iPhone's built-in camera and create a "sighting." Community Leash uses iPhone's GPS capability to keep people updated on lost pets in the area.

And for around $400, pet owners can get a GPS collar that allows them to track the movements of their pets via linked satellites.

No single agency tracks the thousands of lost or roaming animals who find their way to shelters and rescue organizations, so it's impossible to pinpoint just how many animals are reunited through technology.

The Michigan Humane Society shelters and cares for about 15,000 stray animals a year. Only about 16 percent of lost dogs and 3 percent of cats are reunited with their owners, said Jennifer Robertson, society spokeswoman.

That's because most of the animals lack any identification.

Microchipping begins

But that's changing. Since summer, the Humane Society has been microchipping all adoptable cats and kittens at its veterinary care centers in Detroit, Rochester Hills and Westland.

Microchipping costs around $48, but the Humane Society is doing it for the cats at no cost to those who adopt them.

"Microchipping offers a safe, permanent and unalterable form of identification," Robertson said. "And that can often be a lost pet's ticket home if he or she arrives at an animal care center. The cost is minimal compared to the heartbreak of losing a cherished four-legged family member."

The society also has a gallery of lost pets set up on its Web site at michiganhumane.org.

'Every little piece counts'

With Acosta's company, an e-mail is released when a registered pet is lost. The e-mail, with a photo, is sent to other registered users and pet rescue organizations within a certain radius of where the pet was last seen. Vets and breeders also get the e-mail. Combining services and technology leads to better odds, he said.

"Our position is, every little piece counts," Acosta said. "If you have a dog tag, if you have a registered license number, if you have your pet microchipped -- all the pieces of the pie are going to increase the chances of getting your pet back."

Hawk is happy to have Snowball back. How the cat got from Florida to Michigan remains a mystery. A couple of years after she adopted him, he started getting sick. She thought he was allergic to her carpets, so she reluctantly gave Snowball to a friend of a friend with hardwood floors. But one day, the man just up and left. And the next time she saw the cat was seven years later, when she drove up from Florida to pick him up. He's around 14 now, and can't jump like he used to, but is apparently no longer allergic to her carpet.

She's thankful she got him microchipped.

"I tell all my friends, 'If you don't have your pet chipped, you better.' "

~ Steve Pardo, The Detroit News