For those of us who feel that our pets are part of our family, it's scary when they get lost. But there is a service available to help reunite pets with their owners. It's called Hound and Found, and it's an initiative that started at Vale Park Animal Hospital in Valparaiso.
"Hound and Found is a free service that the community can use to find their pets or help return found pets to their homes,"Jaclyn Rodriguez, Receptionist at Vale Park Animal Hospital said.
Jamie Ellis, former Practice Manager at Vale Park Animal, came up with the idea for Hound and Found. She saw that there was a need and met it with the help of Rodriguez and others at Vale Park.
"This has taken off more than I imagined. We had an amazing response from the community," Rodriguez said.
When a person has lost their pet, or they have found a pet,they can visit the Hound and Found page on Vale Park's website and fill out the submission form all of the pertinent information about their pet like breed, color and markings, gender, whether their pet had a collar or pet ID on or not, where the pet was last seen, and other helpful information like, "Answers to the name Duke."
After the form is filled out, the message is sent out to Vale Park's entire email list and be posted to the Vale Park Facebook page. Those who receive the email and those who "Like" the Vale Park Animal Hospital Facebook page will often share the information with others. Word of mouth is an excellent way to spread news.
"There are hundreds of thousands of people who see the information from Hound and Found," Rodriguez said. "All it takes is five minutes of your time and we do the rest. The likelihood is very high that pets will get reunited with their owners."
If you have found, or have information on one of the reported lost pets from Vale Park Animal Hospital, please e-mail them at support@valeparkanimalhospital.com or call them at 219-462-5785.
To view current lost dogs or cats, click here.
To view pets reunited with their owners, click here.
