PORT ANGELES — Animal lovers now have a resource to help locate their lost pets and to find the owners of pets who have shown up without owners.
The Port Angeles Pet Posse has been reuniting Port Angeles-area pets and their human families since November while operating on a shoestring budget and big hearts.
“As of [Sunday], we have reunited 208 missing pets with their families, and five remain missing,” said Shell-ey Van Cleave, founder of the Pet Posse, who spells her name with a hyphen.
The organization doesn’t charge for lost pet searches, no matter how difficult or large, nor for a search for the family of an animal that has been found, Van Cleave said.
Instead, it relies on cash donations from the public and on the donation of time and effort from volunteers, she said.
Van Cleave said the inspiration for Pet Posse was the loss of her dog in 2014.
She said she eventually found her dog, but in her search, she discovered there were no resources in the area to help families search for their missing pets, aside from reporting them missing to the Port Angeles Police Department or Olympic Peninsula Humane Society.
Neither has the resources to initiate a search for a pet or capturing loose animals, she said.
So Van Cleave and four animal-loving friends — Bev Jacobs, Gail Nivala, Shari Hamilton and Lynn Whited — decided to form a group to help reunite lost pets and their families.
Since then, they have responded to more than 200 reports of missing pets, recovered dozens of strays and reunited many with their owners, established social media sites to list missing or found pets and created a pet adoption center at Tiny Bubbles Pet Store at 1130 E. Front St.
They will also take surrendered pets to place at the adoption center.
Missing and recovered animals have been pretty evenly divided between cats and dogs, though the Posse has also been on searches for a turtle, a rabbit and a peacock, Van Cleave said.
The organization begins a search with a phone call to its Pet Search hotline at 360-775-5154 to alert the volunteers that a pet needs help, she said.
The call is followed by posting a picture of the missing pet on the social media sites maintained by Pet Posse and information about the circumstances behind the disappearance, including location last seen and any behavioral issues, such as shyness or aggressiveness.
Posse volunteers begin a search of the area where the pet went missing.
Their personal vehicles are filled with animal rescue equipment and a “magnet dog,” as circumstances may require.
Eight-year-old Macha is a friendly Labrador-Rottweiler cross whose presence often attracts loose dogs for the volunteers to capture, said Hamilton, Macha’s owner.
With Macha helping, volunteers were successful in a search for a Chihuahua at a graveyard, she said.
The Chihuahua had been recently adopted by a new owner and escaped its new home.
It was missing for a week and was finally located at Ocean View Cemetery, Hamilton said.
She said after a discussion between the parties involved, the dog was returned to the original owners in Sequim.
Searchers sometimes know exactly where the pet is when they get the call, such as a cat that was stranded 25 feet up in a West Port Angeles tree for several days.
The treed cat incident led to a partnership with Flawk Tree Service of Sequim, now listed among the organization’s volunteers, Van Cleave said.
Sometimes, the Posse responds to a report of a stray pet but cannot locate an owner.
Van Cleave said a pet should always have a collar with tags that include the name of the pet and two or more telephone contact numbers.
Microchip-implant subscription fees need to be paid annually or the microchip companies will not release information on a found pet, she said.
Donations can be made to the Port Angeles Pet Posse account at Sound Community Bank or Union Bank, or drop off donations for Pet Posse at 1130½ E. Front St.
Volunteers interested in supporting the team on searches, specialty retrieval efforts such as cats in trees or dogs off cliffs, or through social media organization should phone 360-775-5154.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
