Even missing pets part, parcel of growing online attraction Back in the old days, when you lost your pet, your only recourse was to call on friends to help or post the pet’s picture on a flyer nailed to neighborhood telephone poles and hope for the best.
Today, with the networking help of community websites like Nextdoor.com and other social media, there are many more avenues to pursue much more quickly than ever before.
And coastal residents like Elizabeth “Raz” Rasmussen of Pacific Beach are taking advantage of the ever-increasing reach of modern technology to help locate and secure their treasured lost pets.
Rasmussen’s African grey parrot, Carly Lu, has been missing since June 26. Though it’s been more than three months, she’s continuing the quest and remains hopeful of ultimate success.
“Carly’s been seen twice in Pacific Beach within the last two weeks,” said Rasmussen. “We know she’s still around here and that she is still fine.”
Rasmussen said the social networking ties she’s established on NextDoor have established 17 confirmed “spottings” of Carly in and around Pacific Beach since the bird disappeared. The parrot was seen Aug. 1 at Tourmaline Beach in PB. Rasmussen said Carly Lu was last seen at Bella Pacific Condos in the hills surrounding the In-N-Out Burger near Interstate 5.
“She’s in the Loring Street corridor from the beach to the freeway,” said Rasmussen, who said she’s been “plastering posters all over town” ever since with renewed confidence that Carly Lu may yet prove retrievable.
Pigeon-size Carly Lu is distinguishable — particularly by her bright red tail. Her call is also distinctive, with its repertoire of whistles, beeps and electronic sounds. Those folks who see or hear the missing parrot are urged to call (858) 699-8368.
There’s also a Facebook page called Lost & Found Pets of San Diego and Beyond where people can post about lost and found pets.   “That’s probably a good place to start,” Rasmussen said, adding Nextdoor.com’s website version has a Lost & Found section that’s usually mostly pets.
“I know people have found them (pets) through that,” she said.
A perusal of Nextdoor’s neighborhood information-sharing website on nearly any given day reveals a host of missing dogs, cats, cockatiels — even tortoises.
Here is a list of lost pets listed recently in Nextdoor.com’s Crown Point North Lost & Found section:
• “My daughter’s blue-and-white parakeet got out of the house. She is devastated. Call (858) 274-4072.”
• “Found cat. So sweet. Sarah Rossetto from P.B. Southwest Central.”
• “Found dog. Burak Dogan from Mission Bay.”
• “Found: 2 dogs at PB Christian Church, Sept. 15, Kathy Miller, PB North Shore Highlands.”
• “Missing black-and-white male cat — Zig, Alyssa Muto from Riviera Sail Bay.”
• “Lost dog Maya; large Tan and black female Siberian husky/pit mix, Officer Larry Hesselgesser from San Diego Police Department.
Many of the stories on the site result in happy endings. Fido the dog or Felix the cat is often found.
Such in the case with Sharon Wampler of Bird Rock, whose missing cat was successfully retrieved through social media.
“Thanks to the Bird Rock Community Council’s (BRCC’s) e-blast, our missing 19-year-old cat, Rizelle, was returned recently,” Wampler said. “Apparently, she spent four nights with a family eating salmon and keeping their brown lab[rador] company, feeling right at home.
Wampler said the outpouring of supportive emails she received about her lost cat “was astounding.”
“We are grateful for the kindness of so many thoughtful and caring neighbors,” Wampler said.
One Pacific Beach resident, Jonathan West of PB North Shore Highlands, went so far on Nextdoor.com as to find himself involved in a “shared conversation” with a number of neighbors who had been complaining of having been disturbed by cats.
West said he found this “little message” on his doorstep: “I am a cat, somewhat of an unleashed hairball with an attitude, and I have something to share with all you argumentative human types who have decided to text about we cats on your special little social community website.
“I roam through your neighborhoods, catching rats, chasing birds away … and now and again making myself available for petting and strange conversations aimed at us, which we don’t really understand. But through it all, we do somehow manage to put up with you humans and I am really quite appalled to find that some of you don’t actually find us to be absolutely adorable … I certainly hope that the rest of you will straighten out those confused souls who have this most unfortunate problem. And that’s about all I’m going to say right now. I’ve got to get back to being the sort of cat that won’t take the time to tell you like it is, because we normally feel you should all understand things like this without any of us having to spell it out for you.
“I just have one final word, and I hope you will take it very, very seriously, for all the complex ramifications that it intends to communicate. That word is simply: ‘Meow!’”