LET'S TALK PETS - PATTY GIARRUSSO

Kathy Pobloskie Title: Co-Founder – Lost Dogs of America Organization / Business Name: Lost Dogs of America Email: kathypobloskie@yahoo.com Website: https://lostdogsofamerica.org/ Twitter: ­@LostDogsofWisc Facebook Page: Facebook.com/FindFido Pet Theft Awareness Day is meant to call attention to the importance of pet identification methods and to help educate pet owners in keeping their pets safe from thieves. In sharing tips to keep your pets safe, Pet Theft Awareness Day reminds and encourages pet owners to take the necessary yet easy steps to take to ensure their animal’s safety and security and the pet owner’s peace of mind. Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin, and joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.  

When your cat is missing and has been seen in the area or hiding under someone’s shed or deck, it may be time to set a humane trap. A humane trap is a simple to use tool you can use to bring your cat back home. Brigid Wasson is a lifetime animal care and welfare professional. She is a retired animal shelter director and has been a professional pet sitter since 1994. She is the President of Mission Reunite, a nonprofit dedicated to missing pet prevention and recovery. Brigid works to educate and engage animal shelter leadership, staff, and volunteers and their rescue partners along with pet sitters, veterinarians, and other animal care professionals for community wide solutions to animal welfare issues. Along with her work at Mission Reunite, Brigid writes and shares life-saving information and tips through her First Street Pets blog and Facebook page.

While many organizations were rethinking their volunteer recruitment efforts even before COVID that alone can’t change the low volunteering rate many animal nonprofits are seeing today. Today we will talk about methods to help retain volunteers and get new ones. Andrea Inman is a lifelong animal lover and pet sitter. She has worked in volunteer and kennel management for the past 5 years at a Florida nonprofit that trains guide and service dogs for the visually impaired and veteran’s with disabilities - which relies upon about 300 weekly volunteers coming to their facility. Volunteering is an important part of her life since childhood, and when she can, she volunteers with local environmental groups for beach clean-ups, allowing her to see both sides of the coin. She is certified by Volunteer Florida for excellence in volunteer management, and has attended the global volunteer conference put on by Points of Light to continue her education. Andrea’s passions lie in building proper infrastructure for a successful volunteer program, volunteer appreciation and recognition, and coaching for success. In her career she has helped launch a better pre-screening process for the organization, a training program for incoming volunteers, continuing education opportunities for volunteers, built a group volunteer program, and a successful ambassador speaker program.Andrea recently joined the Farmhouse Animal & Nature Sanctuary (FANS) volunteer family and helps to feed and clean every weekend, and is assisting the organization with building upon their current volunteer program. The mission at Farmhouse Animal & Nature Sanctuary, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is to care for, love and support the exotic, domestic and farm animals that live at the sanctuary, to the best of our ability, for the remainder of their lives and to educate the public on animal care and nature.

Different age groups approach finding lost pets in different ways. Younger adults may just post to social media while older adults may have trouble using social media and just use flyers or print ads. Today, Kathy Pobloskie from Lost Dogs of America, will talk about ways each group can use different methods to help find them find their lost pets. Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin, and joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

Did you know you can find a lost cat with a security camera? Brigid Wasson of Mission Reunite will tell us more about the ways to choose a camera, set it up and effectively use it to locate your missing cat. Brigid Wasson is a lifetime animal care and welfare professional. She is a retired animal shelter director and has been a professional pet sitter since 1994. She is the President of Mission Reunite, a nonprofit dedicated to missing pet prevention and recovery. Brigid works to educate and engage animal shelter leadership, staff, and volunteers and their rescue partners along with pet sitters, veterinarians, and other animal care professionals for community wide solutions to animal welfare issues. Along with her work at Mission Reunite, Brigid writes and shares life-saving information and tips through her First Street Pets blog and Facebook page.

The Underbone Railroad is a group dedicated to helping animals in need get from shelters, foster homes or owner surrenders transported to other rescues, adopters and new foster homes in order to help save their lives.Underbone Railroad is 100% volunteer and does not charge for help. Most volunteers live on the East Coast. Jon Dibernardo, an Army Veteran, spent 28 years with the USPS before retiring in 2014. Even before retiring John knew he wanted to continue serving the animal welfare community and volunteered at local shelters and rescues. After being asked to transport several dogs, John knew he found his niche in rescue transport. John, along with several friends, started the Underbone Railroad to help with coordination and training of others interested in volunteering their time in rescue transport.

How do pet owners find reliable pet information on the internet when there is literally so much garbage out there? Today’s guest, Brigid Wasson, has created a brand new YouTube channel and blog offering just that important information. Brigid Wasson is a lifetime animal care and welfare professional. She is a retired animal shelter director and has been a professional pet sitter since 1994. She is the President of Mission Reunite, a nonprofit dedicated to missing pet prevention and recovery. As an international speaker, presenter, and writer, she is focused on providing advice and support to animal care and welfare advocates, leaders, and entrepreneurs. Her latest undertaking is being the content creator at the blog and YouTube channel First Street Pets. Brigid grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and currently lives in Sonoma County, California.

As 2020 comes to a close, our holidays will look very different this year. Not as many holiday gatherings, parties and get togethers but still pet safety is important to think about. Being aware of things such as simple as where your nearest ER vet is could ultimately save your pet’s life. Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

As 2020 comes to a close, our holidays will look very different this year. Not as many holiday gatherings, parties and get togethers but still pet safety is important to think about. Being aware of things such as simple as where your nearest ER vet is could ultimately save your pet’s life. Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

Cora is a college professor working on her PhD in Psychology. She is certified in pet psychology, human psychology, and child psychology along with pet first aid, pet nutrition, animal reiki, and she is working on her FEMA animal disaster management certification. Cora started her college career in archaeology and has worked with many Native American groups on cultural preservation and social and environment justice issues. Animals and nature have always been her first loves. Her mission with Faeryland’s Farm is to provide a safe space for animals, humans, and nature to heal because she believes that in this chaotic world, love and positivity wins because the animals prove it so. Cora claims to have no special powers or gifts because the animals are the ones that provide all the love and healing while she just speaks human. She acts as their conduit. The health, happiness, safety, and well-being of the animals is top priority and Cora has worked very hard in her life to achieve her goal of having an animal sanctuary to provide that safe space for learning and healing. In addition to 11 goats, the farm has 3 cats, 4 rabbits, 2 dogs, one of which is 18, 2 turtles, fish, ducks, chickens, guineas, one donkey, and one husband in addition to the numerous wildlife that frequents the area.Page 2Faeryland’s Farm is a concept grown from Cora’s love of animals and nature. Consciousness exists in everything, and the farm is a magical place that helps to shape the human-nature bond. Cora has traveled across the United States camping and hiking with her dog Little Bear that is now 18 years old. Little Bear has been an archaeologist, documentarian, Indian Activist, and wander and world traveler. Cora got her first goat about 8 year ago on a ranch out in the Mohave Desert named Baby that was her bottle baby who tragically died about the age of two years old. However, Baby’s legacy lives on and she was the inspiration.In addition to her therapy and educational work with the animals, Cora teaches a wide range of subjects from anthropology to history to psychology and cultural studies. Her PhD focus is mindfulness and how animals and nature enhance our mindfulness practices. Cora loves her animals dearly and cannot imagine life without them, as she has worked very hard in her life to have them. She believes that goats are great therapy animals because each one has its own unique personality and they just seem to have an inner knowing of what people need. Cora loves all the animals very dearly, and she does have a main therapy goat named Chocolate (pronounced Shock-o-lot); Chocolate’s therapy goat is Patience, and it is not uncommon to see the three of them together walking around the farm or in the truck along with Max the lab puppy.

Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

Lost Animal Resource Group was founded by four dedicated animal rescuers. These found individuals included Bob Swenson and Carmen Brothers, along with Jill Barsky and Denise Harris. Together they have over 20 years of combined experience in lost pet recovery. Their services are available nationwide with a focus on the East Coast. Bob has expertise in designing and constructing a variety of traps including missy traps for hard to catch animals. Carmen Brothers and Bob Swenson are co-founders of the nonprofit called Lost Animal Resource Group. They assist with community outreach, strategic trapping and pet tracking. They help all types of pets ranging from dogs and cats to turtles and goats.

Katie was certified as a Missing Pet Recovery Specialist in 2016 through what is now Missing Animal Response Network. She has been working with owners of missing cats and dogs in Colorado and remotely in other areas since that time and recently moved to Oregon. She creates search plans for owners of missing dogs and cats, and helps on the ground with humane trapping when needed. When the Oregon wildfires exploded in early September of this year, she found a team that welcomed her help in rescuing animals in the burn zone. She traveled between her home in Bend to Springfield to help on the Holiday Farm Fire several times, and made the trip to southern Oregon to help on the Almeda Fire near Medford twice to train with Shannon Jay, a well know "fire cat" rescuer and to help on the ground. She has a cat detection dog, a beagle/dachshund mix named Franklin, who helped recover a cat in a big dark home the owners couldn't return to, helping rescuers get the cat safely and quickly, and later used him to help find some deceased cats in burn zones, giving the owners closure. Katie is also a volunteer Microchip Hunter with Lost Dogs of America and uses her skills to help reunite found animals with their owners whenever possible.

Kat Albrecht-Thiessen is a police detective-turned-pet detective and founder and director of the Missing Animal Response Network (MARN). Since 1997, Kat has trained and worked search dogs trained to track lost pets. She is widely known as the leading authority on pet detective training and she operates the only online pet detective academy through MARN. Kat is the author of two books: Pet Tracker: The Amazing Story of Rachel the K-9 Pet Detective and Dog Detectives: Train Your Dog to Find Lost Pets.

Jeanette talks with us about why keeping your microchips updated is so important. She volunteers with Lost Dogs of Illinois and helps run the microchip hunters that help shelters, rescue organizations and individuals across the country when there is an unregistered microchip in a found pet.

Many people have been adopting pets during this pandemic. Along with newly adopted pets comes missing pets. They are huge flight risks. Carmen Brothers and Bob Swenson from Lost Animal Resource Group join us today to talk about the first steps to take if a newly adopted pet gets lost and how to prevent it from happening in the first place.Lost Animal Resource Group was founded by four dedicated animal rescuers: Bob Swenson, Carmen Brothers, Jill Barsky, and Denise Harris. Together they have over 20 years of experience in lost pet recovery and are able to provide services nationwide with a focus on the East Coast. They assist with community outreach, strategic trapping and pet tracking. They help all types of pets, not just dogs. Bob is also able to design and construct a variety of traps include missy traps for hard-to-catch animals.

When lost dogs go into survival mode, getting one to come to you is nearly impossible. Today Kathy and I will talk about luring a shy lost dog using a feeding station. What is a feeding station? How do you set one up and using trailing cams along with feeding stations to help in the effort. Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

PetFBI is a nationwide lost pet recovery service that works in collaboration with Helping Lost Pets, Lost Dogs of America and Lost Cats of America in an effort to produce one centralized area to search for pets all over the United States and Canada. All services are free of charge. Leslie Poole is the Executive Director of Pet FBI, a nonprofit organizationthat reunites lost pets with their owners. Pet FBI, Pet Found by Internet,was one of the first lost and found databases on the web. Pet FBI startedout in Ohio and currently services the entire US, Puerto Rico and nowCanada. Leslie joined Pet FBI in May 2017 after the founder, MarisaFanelli, retired.

Criss Bruneman is the owner of Comfy Claws Cat Care. She is a retired veterinary technician and very involved in the cat rescue world. She currently volunteers her time with Feline Friends and Venice Cat Coalition here in Florida. She is involved with the rescue’s TNR (Trap Neuter Vaccinate Release) programs helping to ensure the kittens and cats that may be adoptable can be placed into loving homes helping to reduce the population of community cats. Her Comfy Claws Cat Care business offers cat groom, cat sitting and other cat care with special prices available for those financially challenged families and senior citizens.

Marilyn and Patty discuss how Facebook helps and hurts with animal rescue, especially after natural disasters. Marilyn Litt is the Director of Lost of Texas. She is an expert on Hurricane rescue efforts after helping local shelters and rescue organizations following Hurricane Katrina. She is now involved with the Humane Society Of Louisiana helping them after Hurricane Laura. Marilyn is also the founder of MicrochipHelp.com which helps shelters, rescues and individuals across the United States with unregistered or difficult microchips when pets are found.

Kathy joins us to tell the story of Cody, a 13 year old Chow Chow who went missing from his yard. After he was found, he was transported two hours away and rehomed. Thankfully, the person he was rehome to was located. Thanks to the helpinglostpets.com mapping system and by the great work of a local volunteer who made the match, Cody was returned to his owner.Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

Jeff Dorson is the Executive Director of the Humane Society of Louisiana.After being hit by Hurricane Laura in August, the area is still undermandatory evacuation orders. On top of coordinating multiple disasterrelief efforts, delivering supplies, transporting animals to safety, theHumane Society works with their staff, sponsors, volunteers and other no-kill partners in other parts of the country to make life-saving transports ofdisplaced pets happen.Working incredibly long-hours under less than ideal conditions, the staffand their partners, led by Jessica Cameron, have successfully moved more1,000 animals out of harm's way before and after Hurricane Laura madelandfall.

August 15th was National Check The Chip Day. Generally, organizations across the country have special clinics set up to help people check their microchips to assure them everything is accurate and updated properly. Unfortunately, due to the current crisis, clinics are not possible. Today we talk about ways for owners to be sure their microchips are up to date and properly registered. A microchip that isn’t properly registered is worthless.Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

August 15th was National Check The Chip Day. Generally, organizations across the country have special clinics set up to help people check their microchips to assure them everything is accurate and updated properly. Unfortunately, due to the current crisis, clinics are not possible. Today we talk about ways for owners to be sure their microchips are up to date and properly registered. A microchip that isn’t properly registered is worthless.Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

Karen shares an amazing story of Octavia, a border collie lost in Wisconsin for three months. Karen tracked her for exactly 91 days through 7 cities, 2 counties and eventually was successful in safely catching her on August 2, 2020. This is an amazing story of survival and a perfect example never giving up and of using the proper methods and tools to help a fearful dog when it is lost. Karen is a Board Member for the Dodge County Humane Society, Juneau, WI. She has been involved on the Board since 2011. The Dodge County Humane Society, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization. The mission of The Dodge County Humane Society, Inc. is to promote animal welfare by providing care and shelter to animals in need, by facilitating adoptions and by educating the public. We take in surrendered, stay and rescue transfer dogs and cats, provided all needed veterinarian care, and help find loving adoptive homes.

Lisa and her husband, Patrick, have a special place in their hearts for senior dogs. They have been rescuing senior dogs for years. After losing their young English Springer Spaniel, Teagan, their mission began. It occurred to them to contact a dog rescue association to save a life. In the process of rescuing another dog, they adopted a senior pup, Angelle. And thus, began their love and mission of helping senior dogs.GoodOldDoggie.com is Lisa’s new undertaking where she helps others usher their precious pups into their senior years. Along their journeys, her and Patrick have found products and tips to help keep senior dogs comfortable and to make caring for them easier. Lisa’s goal is to share their successful experiences with you so that you and your dog can navigate this journey with ease. To provide everything you’ll need for a happy, healthy, and confident senior doggie. They will not only thank you for it but love you because of it.

The corona virus has caused a significant disruption for many animal shelters. Many have closed and many are on very limited hours. Clinics have closed down and while some still operate, the wait times are long. Adoptions have closed down or are by appointments only. Lost pets intakes are also closed or by appointment only. Rick Yocum is the Executive Director of the Humane Society of Manatee County in Bradenton, FL. Rick has been with the Humane Society since 2016 and comes rom New Jersey where he served as President of the New Jersey Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for seven years. Rick was a certified humane law enforcement officer who trainer other officer and investigated animal cruelty cases.

How can we help local shelters reunite more lost pets? Considering the stress of the Covid restrictions, other organizations are needed more than ever. What are some suggestions for shelters to work hand-in-hand with other lost pet organizations. Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

Does everyone seemed stressed to you? Do people seem like they have extra short tempers? How can we work together to bring back a sense of caring for each other especially when a pet is lost with judgment and hurtful comments? Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

Due to the ongoing virus crisis, animal shelters, clinics and rescues have had to change the way they are handling things. Shelter closures have forced animal welfare leaders to drastically change procedures overnight. They were forced to develop new ways to doing business in order to continue to help those pets in need. One successful method has been community-based efforts. Brigid Wasson is a lifetime animal care and welfare professional. She is a retired animal shelter director and has been a professional pet sitter since 1994. She is the President of Mission Reunite, a nonprofit dedicated to missing pet prevention and recovery. Brigid works to educate and engage animal shelter leadership, staff and volunteers and their rescue partners along with pet sitters, veterinarians, and other animal care professions for community-wide solutions to animal welfare issues.

Sue Taney is the Director/founder of Lost Dogs Illinois and co-founder of Lost Dogs of Wisconsin and Lost Dogs Of America. Since 1989, Susan has managed, worked and volunteered in animal shelters and rescues in both the Midwest and on the East Coast including the Ozaukee Humane Society, and Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Susan co-founded BONES (Beagles of New England States). Sue is an expert on lost dog recovery and procedures to help owners and finders of lost pets get them home safe.

Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

June was National Pet Preparedness Month. We want all pet owners to be ready in the event of a natural disaster whether it be a hurricane, flood, fire, earthquake or other type of storm. Would you know where to go? What to do? Marilyn Knapp from Lost Dogs of Texas joins us to talk about how to prepare your pets and yourself so you will always know what to do in an emergency. Marilyn Litt is the Director of the Lost Dogs of Texas organization. A member of the Lost Dogs of American family, Lost Dogs of Texas helps reunite thousands of dogs with their families every year through Facebook and flyers. Marilyn has been helping put families together, people as well as pets, since Hurricane Katrina. Marilyn is active in online efforts to get animals home after natural disasters and is known among her peers in animal rescue for this work. A native Hoosier and longtime resident of Chicago, Marilyn now lives in San Antonio, Texas with just the right number of dogs and cats.

The loss of a pet can be as hard or sometimes harder than losing a loved one. It can be devastating and having help coping with this loss is important. On today’s show, Jodi will share practical steps of dealing and coping with the loss of a beloved pet and how to find peace in whatever stage of grief you are in. Loss of a pet due to death or when it goes missing, can cause intense feelings of guilt. Jodi will discuss ways of navigating this loss and how to start to heal. After working briefly in the mental health field, Jodi decided to move into the care of pets. For the past 20 plus years, she has owned and operated a family run pet care business in, both Westchester and Fairfield Counties. Through the years, she has learned how to take care of special needs, elderly, and sick pets of all kinds. She has also experienced the devastation and sadness both personally as well as professionally, when our pets leave this world. This experience led her to become a pet bereavement counselor. She graduated from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield CT in 1993, with honors, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. She then went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Fairfield University. In 2016, she became certified as a Pet Bereavement Counselor by Dr. Wallace Sife, the founder of the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement (APLB). In September of 2018, she started working towards her certification as an Animal Chaplain, under the direction of Joe Dwyer.

Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

CARE for PETS is a grassroots “before the door” shelter prevention program focused on owner retention efforts. CARE for PETS serves the Winnebago County – the Rockford area. They are partnered with their municipal shelter to help keep intake, and ultimately euthanasia, numbers low. CARE for PETS is committed to raising funds to benefit the pets in underserved areas of Winnebago County. Funds directly support pet retention efforts, health and vaccine clinics and spay / neuter programming.

There are specific steps to take when it comes to searching for lost cats. Julie Gullickson, the co-founder of Lost Cats of America, will discuss different methods and the important methods owners must take to find their lost cats. Some of the methods are canvassing the neighborhoods, putting up flyers, following up on leads and how to use humane traps. Lost Cats of America is a network of groups operating on social media through Facebook across the United States. All services are free of charge. Lost Cats of America partners with Helping Lost Pets to help get more cats home safe.

BioScent K9 is a Myakka City, Florida nonprofit organization founded by Heather Junqueira. The organization utilizes the power of canine scent detection to develop non-invasive ways of screening for life-threatening diseases. Heather's background is in breeding and genetics. She began researching cancer and came across a California program where researchers were working with dogs to detect breast and lung cancer by sniffing human breath condensation or saliva. The research showed the dogs detecting cancer at early stages.Currently Heather and her dogs are working on a research study to see if dogs can be trained to detect COVD 19.

From its inception, ACE provided a home for wayward senior dogs. Some live out the remainder of their lives here, being given the medical attention they need and the love they deserve. Others have been placed in their own forever homes. The goal of Vintage Paws is to give senior and terminally ill dogs a home of their own. Vintage Paws will raise funding through grants, fundraising and private donors to build these dogs a home to live out their remaining days, months or years.

Farmhouse Sanctuary grew out of the love for animals and was inspired by a friend’s commitment to helping animals. Dave & Lisa Burns, founders and lifelong pet owners, volunteered for many years at a local wild, farm and exotic animal rescue, and later became live-in caretakers for two years at that sanctuary. At that time, they decided they needed to continue caring for animals in need. It is the goal of Farmhouse Sanctuary to give these pets a place to feel safe while teaching a new generation the joy of caring for animals through their various programs, including their Hands, Hooves and Paws children's program. There are currently 71 animals being cared for at the sanctuary.

In the wake of the worldwide Coronavirus, it is important to understand how it affects you and the safety and welfare of your pets. Having a preparedness plan in place in the event you or a loved one becomes sick or hospitalized is extremely important in the event you need someone to take care of your pets. During this crisis, there are options available for temporary housing, donated food and supplies and more to help keep people and their pets together. Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

Lost Pet Services, a nonprofit organization in Sarasota/Manatee County FL is proud to be a part of the 2020 Giving Challenge, a 24-hour online fundraising event, presented by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County with giving strengthened by The Patterson Foundation.Patty will talk about her organization’s programs and tell some life-changing stories of the pet’s they’ve helped thanks in part to the generous donors and the Giving Challenge of 2018 that helped support these programs.On April 28th starting at noon, you can Be Their Hero by supporting Lost Pet Services and our Facebook group, Lost and Found Pets 941.

Rob Goddard is the President of Helping Lost Pets, a free, integrated, map-based national lost and found pet registry database to help people find their lost pets. Helping Lost Pets’ mission is to provide one website where every lost and found pet is listed and share these listings far and wide. They provide their website services free to animal shelters, veterinarians, volunteer groups and any pet related business or organization so that we can all network everywhere to save more pets. Helping Lost Pets works directly with the Lost Dogs of America organization to provided free flyers and volunteer help across the entire United States, Canada and beyond.

On April 23, 2014, Lost Dogs of America created and launched the first National Lost Dog Awareness Day, a canine-focused day aimed to bring attention to all dogs that are lost each year, while also celebrating the thousands of lost dogs successfully reunited with their families.In the world of animal advocacy, adoption efforts of “homeless” dogs in shelters and rescues is a major focus. National Lost Dog Awareness Day places a new focus on lost pets and reminds the public that “Not All Stray Dogs Are Homeless”. An estimated 40 to 60% of “stray” animals in shelters are actually lost pets who really don’t need a new home. They just need some help to get back home. Increased awareness of lost pets helps reduce stress on owners through hope and resources, and works towards reducing intake and shelter deaths at shelters and animal control facilities.Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe.

Samantha Fox is the President & Founder of Fox Foster Kittens in Sarasota, Florida. Fox Foster Kittens is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit rescue dedicated to helping reduce the euthanasia rate due to overpopulation and curable illnesses that most other rescues are unable or unwilling to help. They take on the most challenging cases such as ruptured eyes, broken bones, and terminally ill cats and kittens. They pull kittens and cats from high-kill shelters to help reduce euthanasia rates. The also educate the community on the benefits of spaying and neutering to help reduce the overpopulation of unwanted cats and kittens in South Florida

As part of this show’s commitment to keeping pets safe, we want to recognize that April is National Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month. Deputy Holly Combee joins us to help raise awareness about the important issues facing pets today with respect to animal cruelty and neglect. Detective Combee has been with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Department for 33 years. Currently she runs the Mounted Patrol Division as well conducts animal cruelty investigations of domestic cats and dogs. She has over 30 years of investigative experience with the last few focusing more on animal cruelty cases.

Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe. Lost Dogs of America has Lost Dog organizations in almost every state. The goals are to reunite the lost with their families and to keep more strays out of our local overcrowded shelters. Lost Dogs of America wants to remind the public that “not all stray dogs are homeless dogs”.

Kathy Pobloskie is the co-founder of Lost Dogs of America and Director/Founder of Lost Dogs Wisconsin. Kathy joins us each month to discuss lost pet recovery methods and the importance of doing everything to keep your pets safe. Lost Dogs of America has Lost Dog organizations in almost every state. The goals are to reunite the lost with their families and to keep more strays out of our local overcrowded shelters. Lost Dogs of America wants to remind the public that “not all stray dogs are homeless dogs”.

With nice weather approaching, more people will find themselves in the ocean, lakes, pools and boats with their dogs. Today we will talk about water safety and your dog. Gretchen Staab, owner of Dawg Swim, has worked with animals all her life. Gretchen has dedicated 30+ years caring for a wide variety of domestic and exotic animals. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Equine Science from Colorado State University. She is a certified Pet Tech Pet CPR & First Aid Instructor; teaching people how to take immediate, potentially pet lifesaving action, before & while transporting your pet to the vet.

Carmen Brothers has been tracking lost pets for five to six years with her tracking dog, Magic. She travels all over the United States but primarily focuses on the East Coast.She is also the founder and on the Board of Directors of a nonprofit called, Lost Animal Resource Group, which is a full-service pet recovery organization. They assist with community outreach, strategic trapping and pet tracking. They help all types of pets, not just dogs and cats.