People often ask me how I came to be a pet detective. Like most paths in life, I arrived here by a rather circuitous route. In college I began what seemed like an exciting career as a wildlife biologist. I studied wolves and bears in Banff National Park, Alberta, and coyotes and red foxes in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. However, as I started my master’s degree work at the University of Wyoming, I realized that I was no longer on the right career path. What I really wanted was a job where I could work more closely with animals and make a positive impact on their lives. Soon after I moved back to Massachusetts, I adopted my dog Dante and began studying for a career as a dog trainer/behavior consultant. While researching different careers in dog training, I learned about Kat Albrecht’s work as a pet detective and her founding of the Missing Pet Partnership, a national non-profit organization dedicated to reuniting lost pets with their owners. I felt that lost pet search & recovery work was a much needed service that is sorely lacking in Massachusetts and most of New England. In 2008, I traveled to Seattle to receive my certification as a Missing Animal Response (MAR) Technician from the Missing Pet Partnership. I began by offering my services as a lost pet search & recovery consultant (i.e. pet detective) as a volunteer, and in 2009, I launched my business Compassionate Pet Services.
For a nearly complete list of my educational and professional experience, check out my Curriculum Vitea.
Search Dog
Dante is a 5-year old Border Collie/Golden Retriever mix (at least that’s my best guess). I adopted him as a puppy from the Sterling Animal Shelter where he had been rescued from a Virginia shelter as part of their puppy rescue program. Dante likes cats though they don’t often appreciate his attention. His favorite activities are finding and eating anything remotely edible and chasing squirrels. He also loves his training and meeting new people, especially kids.
When I started my work as a pet detective, I had a strong interest in training Dante as a scent-specific trailing dog to help in locating missing pets. Training a trailing dog usually takes several years of dedicated work before the dog is ready to take cases. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find the time to consistently work on Dante’s training. I still do have plans to eventually offer search dog services, either with Dante or another dog, but currently my lost pet work has taken on new priorities. I mostly work with finding and recovering escaped indoor-only cats. This is a rather specialized work because most lost indoor-only cats are not located far from home, but it can be very difficult to find where they are hiding and catch them.
Research
I have learned a lot over the past couple years both from helping people find their lost pets (mostly cats) and from continuing to expand my own education through seminars, books, and scientific journals. However, perhaps due to my background in wildlife biology, I have become increasingly frustrated with the lack of research behind much of the information shared and methods used in lost pet search and recovery. In 2011, I started a Lost Pet Research & Recovery blog with several goals in mind: 1) to summarize some of the scientific literature review research that I have conducted; 2) to explore different areas of lost pet search and recovery that are controversial and suggest further research; and 3) to share the results of some of my own research projects. I am currently most interested in studying: 1) the natural behavior of outdoor-access (owned) cats and free-ranging (feral or stray) cats; 2) the impact and success of using feeding stations to recover lost indoor-only cats; 3) the usefulness of different methods for preventing pet loss such as GPS devices and radio-tracking; and 4) the causes of mortality for free-ranging dogs and cats, in particular the potential dangers of vehicles and predators such as coyotes and bobcats.