How do you let your neighbors know to keep a look out? Where would they go to report a sighting or learn if your pet has been found? Lookout Guardians serves as the information hub for neighborhood alerts and reports concerning lost cats and dogs, helping people organize to find and recover each others pets in the neighborhoods where the pets are lost. Here is an example…
Michael is your typical h
igh energy ten year old. He has spent the morning running in and out of the house. Betsie, the kitty, has been watching for her opportunity to escape. Traditionally an indoor cat, she has no greater desire than to get out and so when Michael pauses half-in and half-out of the house as his Mom tells him they will be leaving to go to Soccer practice in half an hour, Betsie gets her chance and scoots past Michael and into the great outdoors. After scampering away as fast as she could so as to not get caught, Betsie suddenly realizes she does not know what to do once she is out doors. Nothing is familiar and she becomes scared. Slinking along the side of a building, she finds an opening and goes IN. She’ll just hide here in this little building. Then the door closes and it is dark. Betsie sits in the small building in the dark. No food; no water. Meanwhile, Michael has not noticed that his kitty was missing. He and his Mom go to soccer practice and it is only later in the day that they realize Betsie is gone. They search their yard and call for her but no kitty. Michael’s mom posts a Lost Pet Alert on the Lookout Guardians Website and reassures her tearful son. By 11:00 the next morning, Mom checks Betsie’s Search Blog and learns that over eighty Lookouts are on the lookout for Betsie including seven on her street. Around two that afternoon, Mr. Archer and Mrs. Lee, neighbors, walk up with Betsie. After some rejoicing and many thank-yous, Michael’s mom posts a Recovered Pet Report. The other side of the story-
Mr. Archer is a Lookout. He does not own a pet himself, but loves cats and dogs and would happily help out a friend. Archer reviews his email one afternoon, he notices a Lost Pet Alert for a lost grey and white cat, Betsie. He knows Betsie. She lives two doors down. This Alert is requesting that nearby neighbors check their garages, window wells, sheds, trees and other such places. Archer takes a quick walk around his house checking for places where a lost cat could be stuck or hide. He sees a neighbor and tells her about Betsie. The neighbor says, “Oh! I should check my shed! I was in and out of it yesterday. “ When the neighbor opens the shed, there is Betsie. Archer picks Betsie up and they walk her home. What two other Guardians were doing…
Mrs. Day has a cat and a dog as family pets. She learned about Lookout Guardians from a neighbor who asked her to register to help look for their lost pet a couple of months earlier. Day registered herself, her husband and her children as Lookouts and then enrolled her two pets in the Lifetime Membership Plan. Day and her family are very active Lookouts. The morning after Betsie disappeared, Mrs. Day scrolls through her email while sipping her morning coffee. She notices a Lost Pet Alert for a lost cat in the neighborhood. It is a three year old, grey and white female named Betsie. Day prints out a dozen copies of the accompanying Lost Pet Poster. She also forwards the Alert to a number of friends in the neighborhood. At breakfast, she gives two Posters to each of her three kids. They take the Posts to school and post them on the school's Lost Pet Bulletin Boards. They also tweet their social networks. Day takes the rest of the Posters she printed with her as she runs her morning errands. As she leaves her apartment, she runs into a neighbor who agrees to post one of the Posters in the reception area of his apartment building. Then Mrs. Day posts one at the grocery store while she is shopping. She also drops a Poster off at her local bank as the manager has agreed to post for local lost pets as a community service. Later in the day, Mrs. Day gets an email from Betsie’s owner saying Betise had been found about four houses from her home accidentally locked in a neighbors shed. Day forwards the news to her search team. During the week as she goes shopping and to the bank, she removes the Posters she had posted around the neighborhood. Lu is a 79 year old retired school teacher. She has had pets all her life. She currently does not have a pet but plans on getting a kitten once she has recovered from hip surgery. Due to the surgery, Mrs. Lu has to take it easy for a while. She likes to spend an hour or two reading on the balcony of her apartment in the sun each morning. Her balcony overlooks a small stream and thicket that attracts animals looking for fresh water. This morning she noticed a Lost Pet Alert in her email for a grey and white cat. As she is sitting on her porch reading she keeps an eye out for the lost kitty. Later that day, Mrs. Lu gets an email telling her Betsie has been found safe and sound. How do I get involved? Two Steps
Step One
Become a Lookout. It's free! Lookouts are the backbone of Lookout Guardians. They receive a Lost pet Alert if a pet is lost in their area. Lookouts simply stay on the Lookout for the pet as they go about their daily activities. If they see the pet, they report the sighting to the owner. Between 50 and 79 percent of households in most neighborhoods own pets. In addition, many people who don't currently own pets are pet friendly. Most people cannot afford to hire even one or two people to hunt for their lost pet; nor do they have time to conduct a search themselves. But imagine how helpful it would be if you could alert hundreds of your neighbors with a click of your keyboard. Lookouts provide a warm, friendly pair of caring eyes on the Lookout of a lost pet. Go to www.lookoutguardians.com and click Join Now either in the upper right of the page or the center of the page. Create a Member Name and password and click that you want to be a Lookout. Complete as much of the form as you can and submit. You will be able to update your profile later. Once you have submitted your profile, you will receive an email. Go to your email account and read the email. Then click on the URL that confirms that you intended to set up this account. Clicking on that URL takes you back to our website. To get to the Membership areas, you will need to Login. This like is located in the upper right hand of the home page and all other pages. We keep your personal information private and do not sell it or give it to any one else (unless required by law) without your permission. Your information is used to determine if you are in an area where a pet has become lost and to send you a Lost Pet Alert. We respect your privacy and aggressively protect it. Step Two
Enroll your pet in the Lifetime Membership Plan. This plan allows you to create a descriptive profile of your pet including uploading pictures of your pet. Photos are very valuable in helping look for a lost pet, so several can make all the difference in getting your pet home safe and sound. Once you have provided a description of your pet, it takes just a few minutes to file a Lost Pet Report and all the Lookouts in your area are alerted. In addition, with your permission and for no extra charge, we can send alerts to local shelters, veterinary clinics, pet rescue groups, pet boutiques and the local police department. Once the Lost pet Report is filed, the Lookout Guardians Website creates a Search Blog for your pet so you and your Lookouts can communicate information about the Search. For example, you might post, "The grey and white kitty on Elm Street is not my kitty. My kitty has grey stripes on his legs and this kitty has white legs." A Lookout might post, " I saw a grey and white kitty in the court yard of the Cumberland Apartments at about 10:00 this evening. It had a bell on it's collar like you described. It ran toward the south, past the buildings and down a gully. There is water in the gully." There is a one time fee for this program. Our website is still being developed and in just a few weeks, out Search function for Lost Pets will be operational. In the meantime, Lookouts can register and pets can be enrolled. Until we publish the Search Function, we have a special offer. We will retail at $15 per Lifetime Pet Membership. Use Savings Code: SafeandSound and you will save $5 off any purchase you make until June, 30,2012. Then the Savings Code will save you $3 off any future purchases. Note: We do not provide your private information to anyone without your permission. Obviously, a certain amount of information is posted for a search, however you have control over that. I don’t have a pet. How can I help? You don't have to own a pet to be a Lookout. Lookouts are the backbone of the Lookout Guardians Neighborhood Search Network for Lost Pets. They provide the rapid response search team that looks out for lost pets as they go about their daily activities.
1. This link is located in the upper right hand of the home page and all other pages.
2. Ask friends and family to register as a Lookout.
3. Tell your pet owning friends about the Lookout Guardians Lifetime Membership Plan. My pet has a chip. Why do I need Lookout Guardians, LLC? The chip is a critical and essential part of protecting you pet and getting it home safe and sound. However, it does not have any tracking ability. It will help you identify to pet once someone acquires it, but it does not help you find it. That is where Lookout Guardians helps out. Lookout Guardians, LLC helps find the pet. In addition, Lookout Guardian's contact information may be more up to date since we verify contact information when the Lost Pet Alert is filed. Chip information has to be updated when contact information changes and if the owner forgot to, then there may be problems finding the owner. Why should I enroll my pet before it is lost? When you enroll your pet in the Lifetime Membership Plan, you have the opportunity to complete the Pet Description Page. This page helps you collect critical information about your pet in one place. In particular, the page allows you to upload a series of pictures of your pet that can be used in the Lost Pet Alert and Lost Pet Poster that is sent out to the Lookouts. Photos play a critical role in telling people about your lost pet. If you wait until the pet is lost, you may not have the pictures and you will limit the utility of the Lost Pet Alert in telling Lookouts about your pet. Also, if you have to hunt down pictures of your pet, you are delaying getting the information out about your pet. A few hours can make a huge difference in a successful, early rescue. Noone plans on their pet getting lost. So when it happens, they are rarely ready with a rapid response. Most of the pets I have helped look for, have loving owners who try to keep them safe and protected. But pets manage to escape outside; throw their collars and defeat our protective efforts. I had one Shepard that climbed an 8 foot fence. I designed Lookout Guardians to be an inexpensive addition to you current protection system- $10 to $15 for the life time of the pet. If you need it, it is there and can save you hundreds of dollars and save you time. If you don't need it, your funds are still doing good work-it's helping get lost pets home; supporting the website; and helping pet well being organizations such as ASPCA as we donate to these organizations. Another reason relates to the idea that many hands make light work. For this system to succeed, we have to have lots of registered Lookouts. Most Guardians (Pet owners) will also register as Lookouts. Since most neighborhoods have between 50 and 79 percent of households with at least one pet, pet owners comprise a significant portion of the potential Lookouts. How many Guardians are in my area? During the early phases of our program development people will register as Lookouts by providing their address and/or zipcode. These numbers guide our sales and outreach. We track how many Lookouts and Guardians (pet owners) are registered in each area. As our web resources develop, it will be possible to enter you nine digit zip code and find out how many Lookouts are in a given zip code. Until that function works, we are posting enrollment numbers by area, such as: Wheaton has 800 Lookouts.
