Lost and Found Service Helps Neighborhoods Find Pets

Reuniting pets with their owners is something Karen Briggs takes very seriously.

With Petwatch, a neighborhood lost and found pet service in Texas, she gives pet owners between boundaries of Northwest Highway, Plano Road, Walnut Hill, and Jupiter in Dallas a way to keep track of their pets in case they wind up missing.

Co-founded by Briggs in 1999, this Petwatch chapter is a formal Crime Watch that is part of Highland Meadows Neighborhood Association. Briggs serves as chairperson of Petwatch. A Petwatch Kids group has 20 members. Petwatch keeps a pet registry for animals in the neighborhood enabling the coordinator, Briggs, to look up any found or missing animal and have the contact information of the owner or pet's description. She also publishes a Petwatch Mewsletter monthly via email and a Petwatch in Progress email as pets are lost or found to the members on her eList which is over 400 residents and includes local vets. Briggs monitors the Petwatch voice mail, like a hotline for those who have lost or found a pet in the area. Petwatch also has volunteer foster homes for found pets. Volunteers help out at community events with the Neighborhood Association and recently Petwatch helped at the National Night Out at the local school.

"Our organization is not necessarily an animal rescue group like many others; it is really a lost found group," said Briggs. "Our goal is to help reunite lost pets and if we cannot, then we try to do what is best for them, i.e.; by adopting them out to good homes or moving them on to reliable shelters or rescue groups. We have saved countless animals doing this and hope we have helped in our small way with the stray problem in Dallas. Our Petwatch is currently shown as a model for other neighborhoods."

Petwatch was also co-founded by Joyce Ferguson, Sharon Smith, current President Rhett Staenling, Cindy Lewis, assistant coordinator, and Petwatch Kids Leader.