CLPD Bulletin Winter 2014

Page 1
Whats Inside
Page 2 Rescuing Ruby
Page 4
Long term missing pets
Page 5
Pet Detective Tips
Page 6
ACT Ventura Pet
Detective winners and
sponsors
The more eyes on the ground, the
faster we reunite the hound
Welcome
Welcome to the first bulletin from Canberra Lost Pet Database
(CLPD). When CLPD commenced in June 2013, we never
expected it to become such a vibrant and useful tool for
Canberra and its surrounding regions in helping to reunite lost
and found pets with their families. Based almost entirely on
social medias Facebook platform, membership of the CLPD has
blossomed to over 9,300 people.
While we would love to take credit, it is as good as it is because
of the community members. You. Without your eyes, and ears,
without your vigilance and caring nature, without your
consistency and reliability, other members of the CLPD
Community and their furry, scaled, feathered and otherwise
exoskeletal family members would not benefit. There is much to
be said for the old adage that the whole is greater than the sum
of its parts.
In this issue you will find a recap of some of the exciting
reunions, rescues and participation, as well as our hopes for the
direction of CLPD. Please read through, and if there is anything
you would like to see in the next bulletin, let us know!!
Anna, Chele, Claire, Kerrie, Christine, & Alix
CLPD is registering as a
not-for-profit association
Page 8
CLPD Out and About
Technology and your
missing pet
Page 7


2



Feature Article:
Rescuing Ruby
You wont have scrolled through the CLPD Facebook
page recently without seeing some mention of Ruby. For
some it might be hard to
understand why Ruby is
such a big deal.
Ruby is a 9-month-old staffy
crossbreed that was first
noticed eating road-kill on
the side of Hindmarsh Drive
in OMalley. For near on 3
weeks, CLPD Community
members continued to keep
watch for her in the fear
that one day a car would hit her.
A number of concerned CLPD Community members
started (individually) visiting the area where she had
been spotted and putting out food for her and trying to
coax her into their care. Unfortunately, Ruby was
petrified of people and would take off as soon as
anyone got within 30 metres of her so a carefully
planned team effort was needed.
The big break came when CLPD member Ruth identified
where Ruby was sleeping. With this information a
collaborative team effort commenced, daily feeding
continued and we were able to identify her patterns of
behavior, which helped to predict her movements, which
is ultimately (combined with bacon!) what lead to her
being coaxed into the arms of CLPD Founder, Anna (who
just happened to smell a lot like bacon that day given
that she had just been throwing it out for Ruby). At the
end of the day the carefully laid out plan didnt even get
used!
Within minutes, skittish Ruby had disappeared and an
exhausted pup in need of love appeared. She curled up
in the back seat of car and went to sleep (while we were
still discussing phase 2).
Ruby was then whisked to a vet to check for microchip
and any obvious immediate health issues. Thankfully
she was microchipped and in remarkably good health,
aside from serious bloating.

Contact was made with Rubys registered owner the
next day. Her owner advised that the situation was
complex and Ruby was unable to return to her family.
After further discussions it was agreed that Ruby would
be transferred into the care of a member of CLPD.
Ruby has had a rough 9-month start to her life including
a fractured leg (from when she was a puppy), and being
on the run for 4 weeks. But you cant tell. She has a
heart of gold, and has been an almost perfect angel in
the three weeks since. She is an extremely intelligent
dog and is just looking for someone to love her. Every
person who has met her has almost instantly fallen in
love
Rubys vet bills totalled nearly $1 000, including
vaccinations, x-rays and ultrasounds. Unfortunately, this
couldnt be absorbed by CLPD admin and so a call was
put out for $750 in contributions and the CLPD
Community delivered.
There was some spectacular donations made, and we
are grateful to each and every person who contributed
including from Kathryn, Racheline, Alice, Jacqui,
Carlene, Sharan, Michelle and Stacey. However, there is
one contribution that stood out among the rest. Rachael
contacted CLPD and advised that her 9-year-old
daughter Grace wanted to contribute $300 towards
Rubys vet bills. We were blown away. As a thank you to
Grace for seeing in Ruby what we have all seen, Ruby
had a play date with Grace, Rachael and their dog, Milo
(photos next page). And they too fell in love with Ruby
(especially Milo).
By the time you read this, Ruby will
have started the next chapter of her
life in Queensland under the care of
the Queensland Staffy and Amstaff
Rescue group. In sending her to the
warmer climates, we are hoping that
her now-healed leg will pain her less
than the bitterly cold Canberra winters.
We are also hoping that the
forever-family full of love and cuddles
that Ruby deserves will find her there
soon.
(more photos next page)
Bon Voyage Ruby!



3



The first photo of Ruby, taken by
Alix
Ruby in front of the construction site she
was sleeping in
Moments after being caught,
exhausted she fell asleep in the car
Her first night indoors she made herself right at home at Venesas and
Gracies house
Ruby with her temp foster brother and sister
Just being
cute
Seriously, I dont have a licence
guys!
Enjoying the wind in my (ear) hairs
Grace and I
(thank you
Grace!!)
Meeting Graces
family this love
stuff feels top
notch. I could
get used to this!


4



Still missing
These are just some of the long-term missing pets on CLPD. Their families miss them very much. Please
check our Facebook page under Lost Dogs , Lost Cats and Lost Other animals for other long term
missing pets.
Discussion forum for owners of missing cats
The sadness and distress felt when a pet goes missing cannot be underestimated. While
everyone deals with it differently some people find it comforting to share their story and discuss
with others who are in the same boat.
The website catsinthebag.org has an active forum where people can talk about their missing
cats, and share tips and advice on what methods they are using to search for them.



5



Why are you registering as a not-for-profit association?
By making CLPD a registered association, we will be
able to actively engage in fundraising activities such
as BBQs, trivia nights etc. to increase the funds
behind CLPD. This will allow us to provide more give-
back initiatives and fund stronger campaigns to raise
awareness for reuniting lost and found animals.
For example, one event we are planning to hold in the
near future is a microchip day at a veterinary clinic
where members of the public can come along with
their cats, dogs, ferrets or rabbits and get them
microchipped for free or at a heavily subsidized price.

What does this mean for me?
This means that any donations you make after we
become officially registered and receive deductible gift
recipient status will be tax deductible. It also means
you can become a member of CLPD (for an annual
membership fee of $1), and come along to AGMs.
Thats it. It wont have any further impact on you! Isnt
that great? The Facebook page will remain exactly as
it is now a free, not-for-profit community resource
run in the same efficient manner.

But how will my donations be spent?
Donations to CLPD will be completely voluntarily. Any
money paid to CLPD as part of a specific campaign will
only go towards that campaign. If the campaign goes
over, we will refund the monies (or you can choose to
donate it to another campaign or the general CLPD If
you contribute to the general CLPD your money will go
towards things such as general flyer print runs, t-shirts
for events (RSPCA Million Paws Walk etc),
reimbursement of excessive petrol consumption when
out searching for animals (with receipts of course),
and equipment used (microchip scanners).At no point
will money be used to pay salary or salary-like
payments to any of its members.
CLPD is registering as a not-for-profit association
What else does it mean?
It means that we are required, by law,
to provide annual statements and hold
general meetings. This means you can
see exactly where the money goes
(without just taking our word for it), and
have your say on CLPD. After all, its
Canberras Lost Pet Database.
I want more information
We have attached the Rules of
Association that we intend to submit for
registration for your perusal. We
welcome any feedback to
Canberralostpet@gmail.com. If you still
have any questions after reading the
document, feel free to email those
through too and we will do our best to
answer them!
By the way, we are also looking for
someone to volunteer as treasurer. Let
us know if you have the skills and want
to do this. Its extremely rewarding!
June Facebook statistics
249 private messages received
362 posts made including:
o c. 70 animal sightings
o c. 80 lost dogs reports
o c. 80 found dogs reports
o c. 50 lost cat reports


6




RSPCA Million Paws Walk
In May 2014, CLPD community took to the RSPCA
Million Paws Walk to wear t-shirts featuring some of
the long term lost pets and hand out flyers
encouraging people to report any sightings of
aforementioned pets. We also managed to squeeze in
a 5km walk with our dogs.
By all accounts it was fairly successful and raised
awareness of CLPD as a resource and certainly put
the faces of our long-termers on a lot of peoples
mind. Sadly, it has not yet resulted in reunions of any
of those pets. However, we have not given up hope!
A huge thank you to everyone that volunteered and
wore the t-shirts!


CLPD out and about
Technology and missing pet
searches
Example of driving route to search for lost dog
tracked by fitness app.

Google maps engine
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/
We love Google map engine for cases where there
are multiple sightings of a dog (or cat) over a short
period of time. You can drop pins to indicate where
the sightings are, and use different colours to
indicate more recent sightings.
With enough sightings a particular pattern or
direction of movement becomes clear, and then it
becomes much easier to know where to go for the
best chance of finding the animal in question.

If you are posting flyers around a large area, e.g. at
different shopping centers in different suburbs,
you can also drop a pin at each site where a flyer
has been put up. That way when you are reunited
with your pet you can easily look back to see where
your posters are so they can be taken down.


Fitness apps
Fitness apps designed for GPS tracking your route
when walking, running or cycling are also very useful
for searching for lost pets by car! You can use them to
track where you have driven and see what streets you
have already covered, and which ones you might have
missed.
This is especially useful if more than one search party
is involved (think screencaps and MMSing).



7



This is the part that everybody
loves - successful reunions. While
there have been significantly more
than just these guys, we couldnt
include them all in the bulletin. If
youre interested in having a look,
check out the Reunited series of
photo albums on the Facebook
page.

Happy Tails Pet Detective Tips
You dont have to physically find or reunite a pet to be eligible for
the CLPD ACT Ventura Pet Detective award if half your luck isnt
coming across the poor lost dears every other day (complete with
microchip and tag), never fear. You can be an ACT Ventura Pet
Detective right from your armchair.
Heres how we do it:
Whenever we receive a report of a lost or found pet, we check our
photo albums to see if we have a corresponding lost/found pet
report. If yes, presto! MATCH.
If no, we then check DAS (for dogs) and RSPCA (for all animals
including dogs) to see if there is a lost/found report there. If yes,
presto! MATCH.
If no, we post them on the main page for everyone to see. We also
look at other resources such as gumtree, all classifieds (etc) and
other Facebook websites (after all, not everyone knows about
CLPD yet!) if we have time, or if we remember having seen
something recently.
So how do you win from your armchair?
Make a match between any one of CLPDs missing (or found) pets
and a found (or lost) notice, tee up the two parties so Fido or Felix
(of Featherby) can go home, and presto! MATCH.
Just let us know about it, how you found the two and we will count
you in the running for that month. How easy is that?
And guess what? The more matches you make, or the more
impressive the match, the more likely you are to win.
And in this weather, who wants to leave their warm armchair
anyways?




Did you know?
If you find a dog wearing a collar with a yellow plastic tag, this is the council registration tag.
You can call Domestic Animal Services or Canberra Connect on 13 22 81, and quote the registration
tag number and they will be able to make contact with the owners for you. A council registration tag is
not an indication of whether the dog is microchipped or not.
For more info about registration tags http://www.petidentification.org/registration.html


8




ACT Ventura Pet Detective winners

In April 2014, we commenced providing Belco Pets gift vouchers to CLPD Community members to
say thank you for the hard work they do to ensure lost and found family members can be reunited.
We got so excited we couldnt help ourselves and ended up with three different categories each
month. Have you won one yet?
- ACT Ventura Pet Detective
- SuperSharer
- Vet Reunion Specialist

Canberra Lost Pet Database thanks our sponsors
April
ACT Ventura Pet Detective Kiara Hardy
Kiara was on to a winner when she managed to single
handedly reunite not one, not two but THREE dogs in a
single day!
SuperSharer Michelle Flynn
Vet Staff Reunion Specialist Award Amy Eland
(Canberra Vet Hospital)

May
ACT Ventura Pet Detective Bea Sunshine Kara-Lee
Kara did an exceptional job tracking down the owners of a
little terrier she found in Richardson. She took the dog for
a microchip scan (no luck), but did some great detective
working tracking down various leads for missing dogs
reported to RSPCA and TAMS.

SuperSharer Carlene Bott
Vet Staff Reunion Specialist Award Carly Lloyd
(Gungahlin Vet Hospital)

June
ACT Ventura Pet Detective Ruth Tilleard
Ruth read about sightings of the roo-eating dog on
Hindmarsh Drive, drove across town and spotted the dog
entering a construction site where it had made its home.
Without this information, the dog (now known as Ruby)
could not have been captured.
SuperSharer Michelle Fitzpatrick
Vet Staff Reunion Specialist Award Skye Cutmore
(Animal Emergency Centre Canberra Fyshwick)]
June
ACT Ventura Pet Detective Ruth Tilleard

Ruth read about sightings of the roo-eating
dog on Hindmarsh Drive, drove across town
and spotted the dog entering a construction
site where it had made its home. Without
this information, the dog (now known as
Ruby) could not have been captured.

SuperSharer Michelle Fitzpatrick

Vet Staff Reunion Specialist Award Skye
Cutmore (Animal Emergency Centre
Canberra Fyshwick)