Lost Dog Found: How We Found Gus

For three days my world was focused on bringing my dog Augustus home.  He slipped out of my back gate last Wednesday (without his collar) and the three days that followed were full of heartbreak, tears, hope and encouragement.  After researching "how to find a lost dog," here's what we did to find ours. 

We made 100's of flyers and posted them in a 3 mile radius.  Initially, I just made black and white flyers with a hand written description of Gus.  I highly recommend creating color flyers with a full body picture of your pet.  Gus is multi-colored, his face is cream and white, but his body is gray.  People initially kept calling us about another dog roaming the streets--it wasn't Gus.  From my research, I also recommend creating at least 10 flyers that you put on neon poster board and post at major/busy intersections.  I spoke with the wonderful people of the Missing Pet Partnership who directed me on how to effectively flyer for your lost pet. 

After not finding him for two days I was at the end of my rope and actually decided to hire a K9 search and rescue team.  It was crazy, stupid expensive and I could only afford him for an hour after paying for their travel expenses, but the dogs did lead us to a part of town that we hadn't yet put flyers up.   Another thing the team told us to do was to pee in a spray bottle and spray urine around the house  so our dog could pick up our scent (loco right? ).  But Andy did. 

On Saturday we continued our search when I came across a woman taking down one of my signs.  I pulled up next to her and asked her if she had seen my dog.  She pointed down and there Gus was, with 3 other dogs she was walking.  I screamed and cried and jumped out of my car.  Here is the crazy part.  The woman who had him, happened to be the Vice-President of a dog rescue organization; her husband was the President.  They had Gus checked to see if he was microchipped; he was linked back to the original shelter who microchipped him--unfortunately I had not changed his information over to my name, so that's why we didn't get a call right away. 

We brought our baby home and I cannot begin to tell you the relief, joy and gratitude for everyone who helped in his search. From those who helped us on the ground, to the retweets and reposts on Twitter and Facebook, to the neighbors who said they'd keep an eye out for him, and of course to my Lord who gave me hope each morning.  I am eternally grateful.  I joyfully took down the 100's of flyers the next day.

Lesson learned.  If your pet is not microchipped, do it today.  If you rescued your dog like we did, make sure to get the pet's information transferred over to your name asap.  We are keeping an emergency stash of flyers  on hand (God forbid he ever gets loose again) just in case.