As human beings, we all have a tendency to complain when things are not going right but it is only fair to say when things are going well also. Almost on a weekly basis, someone contacts me to say they have found a dog but can't keep it. When I suggest they take the dog to the Camarillo shelter, 99 out of a hundred times they refuse to do that and usually say, "OH ON~!!!... I wouldn't do that... The pound is going to kill it".
It behooves us as rescuers to ALWAYS correct the general public's term from 'pound' to 'shelter'. That alone can affect someone's perception of our county's facility. However, you can always take it one step further.
This is a true story that I am sharing with you along these lines.
On May 18th, a local resident in Moorpark was out walking her Whippet late at night when she slipped the collar and was lost. The next day, someone came into the PETCO in Moorpark and said they'd found a dog, but were unable to keep it and were looking for someone to take the dog in. PETCO suggested the Camarillo shelter as well as giving the lady our rescue's phone number. The citizen left the store. Later on, we found out she had simply turned the dog loose again. She never called us about the dog.
In the afternoon, not only the manager from PETCO contacted me, later on in the evening, the owner did as well ~~~ who was EXTREMELY distressed about what had occurred. My heart went out even more and I networked again with all of the rescues I know as well as the networking rescue groups, advising them the Whippet had STILL not been found.
I assured her that no one had contacted us, but also suggested that she immediately contact the Camarillo shelter. Despite being late at night, she drove to the shelter with a flyer and a staff member walked the kennels with her, looking for Sparky.
This has a good ending, and not all missing dog stories do.
A dog trainer saw the dog dogging traffic and opened her car door... Sparky jumped in. The dog trainer went to the VCAR website and submitted an online report of finding the dog. Later on that evening, the owner then submitted an online report at VCAR's website about her lost dog, and the system automatically matched it up and advised the owner had dog had been found.
We as a rescue consistently tell people to use the missing/found system at the shelter's website - it is the best and most efficient way of getting these dogs back to their owners as quickly as possible.
As a side note, one of our volunteers watches the VCAR website for fosters and to make sure none of our TLC dogs accidentally shows back up at the shelter. As an avid CraigsList user, last week she again matched up a missing dog posted there with a dog that was currently at Camarillo. This is not the first time this has happened either ~~~ this will be the third time she has contacted an owner who has posted on CraigsList and let them know their dog was at Camarillo looking for them.
Sparky has been reunited with his owner and despite the massive distress that owner and dog probably experienced, this all had a good ending! We are VERY happy for Sparky AND his owner! Thank-you VCAR for having a system in place that proves it is working!
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