The Runaways and The Reunited

Last week I introduced us to the roaring world of pet social media. Yes, pet social media. You know - the ones that act like they are actually ran and maintained by the animal themselves? I touched on this movement to show what animals are doing to our community through social media. Now I want to talk about what social media is doing for animals.

In the last five years I have noticed a huge spike in pet owners reaching out to their Facebook friends when a pet has gone on the run. It's often a request we don't think about, maybe share and like to throw some engagement their way, but it's normal content for a Facebook feed, right? They normally show up in posts that look like this one:

I am not the only one who has noticed this helpful trend on Facebook because now dedicated lost pets pages have emerged on the scene. These pages allow you to keep up with missing pets in your area. The ideal action steps to utilize pages like this are to seek the groups out as soon as you move to an area or acquire a pet. You won't want to be frantically searching for Facebook pages when your furry friend has gone missing at the most inopportune time. Lost pet pages are much more organized and can reach a much larger audience in comparison to just your pool of friends. Some posts I saw just this week look like this:

Every time I see these posts, I am filled with hope for humanity. While it hurts my heart that pets are going missing, the idea that strangers are grouping together for the benefit of an animal is refreshing.

Social Media is to blame for this wonderful act of community. What would we be stuck doing without this resource? Going door to door? Calling your neighbors with hopes that they answer? Pets can travel far! There's nothing wrong with in person outreach to reunite a pet and owner, it's just sometimes not as effective as the spread of Facebook.

Here's my cry to you: If you are a pet owner, join your community pages NOW! Do your pet a favor so that you're prepared for the worst. Runaway pets are inevitable but reunions are not for certain.