This message was submitted by Chuck Pilcher, a pet parent whose 11 year old Yorkie , Abby, escaped during a routine fire alarm inspection. Mr. Pilcher, who was happily reunited with Abby in less than 24 hours, sent an email to RASKC ‘s pet line describing how the happy event came about. 

I want to thank you for helping us find our Yorkie, Abby, within 24 hours when she went missing from Thursday-Friday. Here’s how it happened:

Abby is noise sensitive. Our HOA was testing our fire alarm system on Thursday. We took Abby elsewhere until we thought they were done. We dropped her off at home about 1:30 PM. They were apparently NOT done testing. We went to lunch for about 45 minutes and when we returned home she was gone. We still have no idea how she got out of our locked unit, out of our locked building and out of our locked complex – 3 gates – but she was gone.

Frantic, we posted our missing pet on several websites, involved our social media network in as many ways as we could think and distributed flyers throughout downtown Kirkland. But what eventually resulted in her quick return (though it’s not “quick” when you’re the grieving “parent”) was our post on your “Lost Pets” webpage:

At the same time, a kind woman named Rosemary found Abby 2 blocks away from our home. Rosemary compassionately recognized that a Yorkie like this was not a stray, picked her up and took her to her home in Juanita. She and her husband Carlos kindly cared for her overnight, even taking Abby to a vet for help and advice. They placed a “Found Pet” announcement on the same King County Animal Control website. When we checked there the next day, we saw a likely match and called Animal Control. We were elated when we heard “You’ll have to contact the ‘Finder’ directly. Here’s the phone number.” We called, confirmed it was likely Abby, drove prayerfully to Juanita and were joyfully reunited with our “child.”

And yes, we now know the value of collars, ID and chips – even for pets you think will never leave the house.

Submitted by Chuck Pilcher
May 21, 2016