Thanks for posting this - it looks like a very useful service. I was impressed that along with all the positive comments, they included reviews where the owners found their own pets and negative reviews. I've never seen a website do that.

You are right, Weed. It seems that the Success Stories section is done on the same basis as the phone calls - Robo-style. The users could just put in their stories, apparently unedited by the company. It is commendable that they just let people write what their experience was like with the service. Even on the stories where the service did not help, it was often cited, like, "Findtoto did not find the dog, but while I was looking in the neighborhood, ten people stopped me to say they got the call and asked if I had heard anything about him yet."

One weird thing about the site is that the thumbnail pictures are quite distorted. My guess is that the instructions ask for a photo with a certain aspect ratio, and people do not follow the instructions. If you click on a pic to get the full size, or click on the second or third photos, you do get an undistorted photo. The distorted photos can be quite misleading, though. I think that Cody from Vermont looks significantly different in the undistorted photos. Some of the dogs and cats look quite twisted.

Don't you wish you had thought of this idea? It is so perfect for today's technology and a society of neighbors who hardly know each other. It would make me feel so much better about walking and driving around looking for a lost pet to know that at least some of the neighbors know that there is someone looking for a lost pet, so they are less likely to be wary of me.

You're welcome! I'm surprised this didn't get more response since it's so universally applicable.

YES I wish I'd thought of this idea! What a great business.

I do have an easy way to find a lost dog I'd like to share with you. I discovered this quite by accident. Here's what you do...

1. When you come home, and when you take your dog for a ride, honk your car horn. You want to do it several times the first week, and once in a while as a reminder after that. You want to teach Fido what YOUR horn sounds like, and s/he should associate that sound with "mommy's home!" and "go for a ride oh boy!"

2. Now when your dogs get out/lost, circle your home in ever widening circles in your car. Every half block or so, pull over, WAIT UNTIL THERE IS NO TRAFFIC and honk your horn. Your horn can call much louder and longer than your scared voice. My throat constricts and I may as well have a mouth full of soda crackers when I'm calling a lost pet, scared to death I'll round the next corner and see her run over in the middle of the road. I go hoarse within minutes. But my car horn never does. The waiting until there is no traffic is the most important part because they won't look, of course!!

3. They will come out from behind a bush or trash can (you'd have driven right by) and come running for your car lickety brindle. You just lean over, open the door, and give them loving when they jump in, and take them home.

I've found my lost dogs that way several times. Anyone can (and should) do this! Please pass all this on.

Oh... lost birds are another matter. The trick (if you find them) is they WILL come down to the ground somewhere in about 3-5 days. When they do, they will be weakened from hunger and be easy prey for a neighborhood cat or dog. So that is the time you really want to be there keeping an eye on them. My Goffins came down at the end of day three, to a bush low enough I could stand on my tippy toes and snag the end of the branch and bend it down and grab her. She'd lost quite a bit of weight. Up to then I knew where she was and I'd been calling to her every 15 minutes or so. But she was a good 125' up in a tree and there was no way to get her until she came down by herself. I was just praying no owls or hawks or eagles would pick her off. She had apparently gotten water from dew off the trees where she hid because she wasn't thirsty. But she ate and slept with a vengeance for the next week. I was VERY lucky to get her back.

Wow, another great idea, Oceanna. Too bad you can't get rich off of that one, like the FindToto people will. It is a good idea and I am glad you shared it.

Thanks, Nancy! I seem to be very good at coming up with things I can't make any money from. lol!