New Facebook group hopes to unite owners with missing pets
DENHAM SPRINGS, LA (WAFB) - There's new hope for lost pets in Livingston Parish. Until now, there was no place for four-pawed friends found outside city limits. But some animal lovers have come up with a way to reunite pets with their people.
In Denham Springs, animals are camped out at the shelter waiting for a family of their own. Dogs waiting for a forever home and cats hoping for a permanent place to purr.
"They had two chocolate labs, neither one was her," said Jackie Todd Henderson. Henderson visited the shelter, not to adopt, but to find her missing three-year-old chocolate lab, Cocoa.
"It's like losing a family member."
The animal shelter's Christine Bradley says this is often a first stop for people looking for their missing pets.
"We keep a book here. When somebody calls and says they've lost a pet, we keep a book with their name, where it went missing from and description of the animal and a call back number in the event it does come here," said Bradley.
But, she adds, the shelter can only accept animals from people who live inside Denham Springs city limits. So, if someone outside the city finds a stray animal, the shelter can't take it. And with no parish-wide shelter, residents are taking it upon themselves to reconnect owners with their four-legged friends.
A Facebook page called Lost Pets of Livingston Parish, is the new way residents are trying to help each other. Posting pictures of pets that have been found, while others post pictures and descriptions of pets that are missing.
Henderson's dog Cocoa has been missing for one month. But when she posted on the Facebook page, someone replied saying they thought they'd seen a flyer that said someone had found a dog matching Cocoa's description.
Cocoa was reunited with her family after a viewer who found her saw her story on 9 News. Cocoa had wandered 10 miles from her home and ended up in Satsuma.
Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks tells 9 News a committee has been selected to begin talks of a parish-wide shelter.
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