Allison Crookshank and her family were in a car accident near Seattle that ejected their new puppy, Penny Moo, from the window.
“We thought Penny Moo was gone forever,” she said.
Then local volunteers who monitor the Facebook group page Lost Dogs of King County got involved.
The group has more than 34,000 members and a 92 percent success rate of reuniting people with lost dogs (and the occasional cat), said Lily Burns, who volunteers about 16 hours a day as the group’s Facebook moderator.
“About 30 people post about missing dogs every day, and we look into each and every one,” she said. “If there’s a dog out there that needs help, that’s where my heart is. We do everything we can to help reunite them.”
In Penny Moo’s case, which was about three years ago, volunteers got involved when a stranger told Crookshank about the lost dogs Facebook page within hours of her car accident.
After their car was towed away, first responders dropped Crookshank, her husband and their three children off at a grocery store so they could arrange for somebody to pick them up and take them home.
“We were worried about Penny Moo and it was getting dark,” said Crookshank.
While she was washing up in the store’s restroom, Crookshank said she told another customer what had happened to their pup.
The woman said she should immediately post about Penny Moo on the Lost Dogs of King County Facebook page.
“She said they’d send people out to look for her, and I remember thinking, ‘This is crazy — how will they possibly find her?’ ” said Crookshank.
She posted a photo of Penny Moo and details of where she’d gone missing on the page. Within minutes, volunteers were out looking for her dog, she said.
When it got dark and the search party went home, Crookshank and her kids made “missing dog” posters.
They never had to post them.
The next morning, Crookshank received a call from James Branson, the group’s founder.
“He said, ‘I can see your dog — she’s about 50 yards in front of me,’ ” Crookshank recalled. “He’d found her under an overpass, about 50 yards from the accident scene.”
Branson put her on his cellphone speaker so she could call out to Penny Moo and entice her over.
It’s one of the techniques used by volunteers so lost dogs won’t become more frightened and confused and run from rescuers, he said.
“She heard my voice and she ran right over to him,” said Crookshank, becoming emotional. “I can’t put into words how grateful I am.”
“Jim thought, ‘If I were this dog, where would I go? What would I do?’ ” she added. “What he did was such an incredible kindness. I think about what he did for us and Penny Moo every day.”
Branson, 61, said he decided to start the Lost Dogs of King County Facebook page in 2014 because he’d noticed that a similar group in Snohomish County, Wash. was having good luck reuniting lost pets with their families.
Branson also runs the Useless Bay Sanctuary, a nonprofit that helps find homes for stray dogs. He uses two of his own dogs, Wakomu and Tino, to help find lost dogs and cats in areas that are often wooded and remote.
“Happy reunions are rewarding for the dogs, the cats and the people,” he said. “That’s what keeps me going. And I also like working with my dogs — they’re my family.”
Most dogs can be found within a few days, noted Branson, but some searches are more tricky. He remembers a dog named Bonnie that eluded capture for seven years until somebody spotted her and posted a Facebook photo.
“When they contacted me, I realized it was Bonnie and we were able to finally pick her up and reunite her with her family,” he said. “She went home and plopped down by the fire and was just glad to be back.”
Burns said she was inspired to join Lost Dogs of King County after one of her dogs, Zoey, slipped out of her harness and ran off a few years ago.
“I panicked and ran around screaming for her — I did everything you’re not supposed to do,” she said, explaining that frantic yelling is likely to cause a dog to run further or hide.
Zoey was found near her apartment building less than 30 minutes later, but Burns said the stress of the moment inspired her to join the Lost Dogs group and research ways to prevent dogs from going missing, such as using a secure harness on walks.
“I can relate to people in a panic over their dog, because I’ve been there,” she said. “The worst thing to do is to chase or call out for your dog because it triggers her to run and she could be hit by traffic.”
“That obviously goes against human nature, but it’s key,” said Burns, noting that volunteers who spot lost dogs during searches often sit facing away from the dog to avoid eye contact, and use treats to gently entice them over.
Brett Kilty of Sammamish, Wash., learned these techniques while searching for his lost mixed pit bull, Jynx, for five days.
Kilty and his family had just landed at the airport for a Christmas vacation in Hawaii last year when he received a text from the person watching Jynx that she was missing. Somebody had apparently left a gate open and she’d escaped.
Kilty, 46, immediately flew home to search for the dog while his wife and two kids tried to enjoy their vacation, he said.
“Somebody told me about the lost dogs group, so I posted her picture and people started to look for her,” he said. “Snow was falling and I was really worried, especially as more time went by.”
Burns and other volunteers helped post fliers about Jynx over several miles and finally on Christmas Eve, Kilty’s cellphone rang.
“A woman who had seen one of the posters told me her cat was sitting on the tractor and wouldn’t come down because a dog was hunkered underneath,” Kilty said. “She recognized the dog as Jynx. She’d been found eight miles from where she went missing.”
On Christmas Eve, Kilty phoned his family in Hawaii and gave them the good news.
“It was the best present ever,” he said. “I was so impressed by how dedicated everyone was in searching for our dog. They’re on it 24/7, 365 days a year. They don’t give up.”
Kilty missed out on his Hawaiian respite, but he’s okay with that.
“I enjoyed the airport briefly, and we are now proud owners of a GPS collar for Jynx,” he said. “I see a lot of family road trip vacations in our future.”