A curious cat missing for 11 days was reunited with his family thanks to technology and the kindness of strangers.
It started with a rude awakening one morning in May for Sharon Furze, an 85-year-old resident of Ridgefield, Washington, when she and her husband couldn’t find their beloved cats, Louie and Sundance. The two orange cats — who had never been outside — apparently found a way to slip through a window.
“I searched everywhere and they were gone,” Furze said. “It was horrible.”
The Furzes headed into the neighborhood and found Sundance, their 1-year-old kitty, hiding behind an air conditioning unit a few doors down. But Louie, their 2-year-old ginger Maine coon, was nowhere to be found.
Since Louie has a gastrointestinal medical condition and their condominium complex is near a conservation area frequented by coyotes, the couple worried about how Louie would survive.
As part of their search, they looked for Louie at the Humane Society for Southwest Washington. Though the lost cat wasn’t in the shelter, the staff suggested uploading Louie’s photo to the national database Love Lost and making a free lost pet profile.
Using Love Lost To Find Lost Pets
That turned out to be the key to getting their lost cat back. Love Lost, a platform created by the nonprofit Petco Love, uses AI photo-matching technology to quickly compare photos of missing pets with “found” pets in animal shelters across America or posted on websites like Nextdoor and Neighbors by Ring.
Furze quickly registered Louie as lost — and the couple continued searching the neighborhood door-to-door with their daughter, Diana, and other family members every day.
Meanwhile, an inconsolable Sundance howled his unhappiness over his missing friend, giving voice to how Furze felt herself.
“I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “I was a mess.”
While in her vulnerable state, a scammer called Furze. He claimed to work at the local animal shelter and told her Louie had been brought in but needed emergency veterinary care — and she needed to send money right away to save her cat.
Fortunately, she’d read about that scam on Love Lost. So instead of giving the scammer her credit card number, she said, “I’m in the car. Can I call you back? What’s your name?” When she called the animal shelter to check on the alleged employee, she learned no one by that name worked at the shelter — it was a false report. She also learned the scammer had pirated the shelter’s phone number.
“I was so grateful I had read on Love Lost about the scam because in my terror, I could have fallen into that,” she said. “But I didn’t.”
A Fateful Reunion
A true Louie sighting came in after the cat had been missing for 11 days. A woman who had spotted an orange cat on the roof of an animal hospital googled “Lost Orange Cat Ridgefield Washington” and the first listing that popped up was Louie’s profile on Love Lost. So she sent Furze a direct message through the Love Lost app.
The Furze family rushed to the animal hospital, where Louie had leapt off the roof and wedged himself under a nearby motorhome. They coaxed out the cowering cat with a can of smelly sardines.
Louie was covered with grease, had lost at least three pounds and had scrapes on his face. But he was finally safe.
“It’s such a miracle,” Furze said. “To us it is just such a miracle the way it happened.”
Love Lost Reunions
Louie is one of over 170,000 pets reunited with their families by Love Lost since 2021, according to Shannon Cronin, chief technology officer at Petco Love.
“We are currently averaging about 2,500 reunions per week, which continues to increase,” he said. “We’ve been enhancing Love Lost for a few years now and are always focused on improving the experience and technology for pet parents, shelters and communities using the technology to reunite lost pets.”
Cronin encourages people with cats and dogs to register their animals with Love Lost before they go missing to save “critical time” if a pet does go missing. He said the ultimate goal of the free, central database is to be the immediate first step pet parents and finders take.
“Love Lost continually updates our machine learning models to make photo matches on lost and found pets faster and more accurate. These models are also used to send out new match alerts to users, letting them know when new pets have been added to our system that appear to match the pet they reported,” he said. “Additionally, it is used to match against pets on Nextdoor and Ring.”
He noted the recent launch of a feature called “Search Party.” It allows people to rally their family, friends and neighbors to help through an interactive pet search checklist to share updates and coordinate tasks like posting on social media, handing out flyers and checking animal shelters.
Cronin is “ecstatic” when lost pets like Louie are reunited with their families through Love Lost.
“When a pet like Louie has been missing for days, the fear and anxiety for the family are immense,” he said. “Every reunion that’s made using our technology makes a real, tangible impact in the lives of pets and their pet parents — and that’s what drives our team day in and day out.”
Life With Louie
Back at home, Louie is a changed cat. He’s no longer such a picky eater. He and Sundance are even more bonded than they were before his 11 days away. But the biggest change is how affectionate he’s become, according to Furze.
“Before he wasn’t a real cuddly cat. Now he’s a different kitty and is just so loving and wants to be on one of us all the time,” she said. “He is just precious.”