We have found our beloved Stanley safe and sound. Knowing his information is out at all the appropriate agencies and with people who care definitely helps with such an emotional time. Thank you for everyone's help. I wasn't 100% sure what I was hoping to find online but it turned out to be exactly all the information I needed and wanted to get me through this ordeal.
Just want to say a huge thank you for the support through an amazing service I had never heard of until we needed it. I will be letting everyone know about it and the amazing result it helped us achieve.
Me and my wife got Stanley through an animal rescue group. He was 4 months old when we got him.
It was the 3rd of January which is his birthday and we had been out for a couple of hours dropping of a washing machine for a friend. We got home and noticed he didn't great us on the deck like he normally does. Then we noticed a gate at the side if our house was slightly open. Our hearts dropped and the panic set in. We straight away started looking at security cameras to see when he was last seen and how the gate had been opened but they hadn't picked that up.
The search began with us calling the city council to register he was missing and to see if he had been picked up and taken to the pound. Then the walking around our neighbourhood and the usual places we take him for a walk but no success. My wife, who is also 37 weeks pregnant was very emotional that night but I don't think it had really hit me yet. Not being able to get much sleep a drive around at 3.30am was a more relaxing way of looking for him without traffic and people but still no success. Day 2 was tough, my wife returned to work and I wasn't clear on a plan of what to do, that would be helpful. I just googled lost dog Tauranga as a hit and hope to find the answer. That's where Lost Pet Finders popped up and I jumped at it, after reading just a few bits of information on the website, I signed up and sent my alert out. With the receipt coming through straight away and a list of the vets and councils that had been notified, plus the number of registered people within the radius I had chosen, it definitely helped make me feel at ease a little knowing the right people had been notified. Next getting emails from Tony with a to do list was a life saver as it put me straight to work with useful tools and actions to put into place. Me and my wife the nigjt before had talked about flyers which she was going to make up at work and print, but with the automated flyers from Lost Pet Finders, it saved so much time and effort. We got a few hundred printed straight away and that afternoon with help from our families we started letter box dropping and tapping up the flyers all around our neighbourhood. It didn't take long before people were messaging and calling with information on sightings of Stanley which straight away brought some form of relief. Even with that relief though, the second day was the hardest for me emotionally. That night we both went for another walk and delivered more flyers. Day 3 rolled around and a few more sight
Day 3 rolled around and a few more sightings from the day before had come through. This was great to hear as it sounded like he wasn't getting too far away. Unfortunately we had to leave town for a few hours to say goodbye to family that was from overseas which we didn't want to miss but was worried if someone would see him that we weren't around to try get him. And it happened exactly as we imagined. A message from someone on the same road as us and a photo which wasn't the clearest but you could tell it was Stanley came through. Luckily my wife's brother was on his way home from work in town and he made a stop at the residence where he was spotted. He was able to get Stanley to come to him and got him home to us safely once we returned from out of town.
The biggest things that helped through this journey were, keeping positive. So very hard at times and the awful worst case does run through your head but don't dwell on them. The flyers were the biggest help with notifying the community and giving them someone to call or message. Social media was a huge help with the community communication also. And keeping busy doing things to help the situation.
Don't give up and there are so many more nicer people out there who care and willing to help, then those who aren't.
A huge thank you to everyone involved with helping us get our Stanley back safe.
