Sam, Ben & Terry
St. Louis, MO, United States
We lost our youngest of five cats, Sam, as I was carrying him to the car at 5 a.m. on a Tuesday morning to take him to a veterinary specialist for thyroid treatment. The carrier loosened enough for the door to swing loose, and he ran into the woods surrounding our house. He had always been entirely indoors, and I couldn’t conceive of how he would find his way back, since he was in a panic and would have been completely disoriented. We consulted more than one professional pet finder, we bought humane traps, we bought trail cameras, we had two different search dogs come out to find his scent, and after two weeks, all we had caught were raccoons and possums. We were frantic with worry that what we were doing was driving him further away, or that we weren’t doing enough. Regardless, I could see that what we were doing was not working, so I looked and found Jenne on line. She was the first person we talked to that did not take a one size fits all approach to our search. We live in a semi-rural area surrounded by acres of wooded hillside with little underbrush, and our cat is extremely skittish and jumpy; much of the advice we were given seemed more suited to people who live in more suburban or urban areas.
Jenne was able to schedule a consultation with me the same day I contacted her. She spent more than an hour asking me about Sam, his personality, how he interacted with other animals and people, and what his habits are. She then told us to pick up the traps and food stations in the woods because all we were doing was attracting animals that would scare him away and told us he was most likely to be found near a house because he would associate people with food, and he would more likely find a place to shelter near a house as opposed to an open forest floor. She gave us a schedule and some tips on searching, but strongly suggested talking with neighbors if possible. Because houses are so spread out in our area and stray animals are not uncommon, we didn’t think anyone would pay attention to an unfamiliar cat, but that weekend my husband walked door to door to the few houses in our area, handing out fliers with Sam’s picture and our contact information. On Tuesday night, less than a week after we first got in touch with Jenne, one of the neighbors he spoke with who lives about 500 yards from our house spotted Sam in his shed. Thanks to the flier, he was able to identify Sam and knew how to contact us. Unbeknownst to us, this neighbor also had an indoor/outdoor cat so there was likely food and water there for Sam as well. Jenne was spot on about where Sam would be found.
Her compassion and her calmness were as important as her advice. This was a very difficult three weeks, and I always felt better and more optimistic after talking with Jenne. We were starting to give up hope but after our consultation I began to think there could still be a chance we would find him. Less than a week after talking with Jenne, we DID find him.
We will always be grateful to her for her insight, advice and compassion. We highly recommend Jenne to anyone who has lost their cat and needs guidance on finding it.
Jenne, we can never thank you enough for helping us find our Sam!
Wishing you the very best always,
Ben and Terry Scheller
St. Louis, MO
