SOUTH ABINGTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) — Lori Lee is the owner of two beautiful great danes and she’s been looking for them since Monday.
She’s been scouring the area every minute she can and based on some eye-witness tips, ended up looking around mount bethel church.
“They’re skittish. They’re running. They’re not coming to anybody,” Lee explained. “I know that they’re both alive and they’re both here, so that that’s good.”
She’s just one example of pets running away, and in the winter, the amount of time out in the cold becomes a matter of life and death. But finding a lost pet isn’t as easy as running up to them, it’s actually the worst thing you can do.
“They also switch into what they call survival mode,” Phillips explained. “So even if it’s your dog and you see it, say the next day, you can’t just walk right over to it, because if it’s in survival mode, it may not even recognize you. It’s definitely going to be afraid of all humans, possibly other animals coming around.”
Meg Phillips has volunteered at the Griffin Pond animal shelter for over a decade, and she said that there was something everyone should do first if looking for a lost pet.
“First and foremost, notify all the shelters and everything else,” continued Phillips. “Shelters, rescues, send them pictures of your animal. Explain where you’re from, the location, the date, the time. Get it posted all over Facebook, there are a ton of lost pet pages on there, put it on each and every one.”
Once posting everywhere you can and assuming your pet is trained and microchipped, she said you should set up feeding stations, contact dog recovery services or possibly even someone with a drone.
And that’s what Lori did. Billy Gabriel from A1 Affordable Chimney met with her to help search and from the air looked for any sign of the great danes. Eyewitness reports said that the dogs had porcupine spines on their face and seemed pretty beat up, but alive, and Lori said that it’s because of the community that she’s optimistic.
“We had people, hundreds of people have sightings and pictures and contacts and literally volunteers – unprompted, walking the areas, riding the areas, walking the trails. I mean, I couldn’t ask for more, honestly, it’s been heartfelt. It means a lot.”
While they didn’t find anything today, Lori is going to keep searching. Not just for some animals, but for family. Family she would do anything for.