Twitter, Facebook and The Case of the Little Lost Dog

Ruby -The Face that Twitter Loves

My son’s dog Ruby decided to go on an adventure yesterday around 2:30. Gone! We live on an island so Colin called me home from a photo shoot on the north end to our neck of the woods on the south end of Bainbridge Island, WA. Our island is small – about 7 miles across at its widest and 16 miles long. There are only 22,000 people on the island and our end is heavily wooded and not densely populated. There are lots of public lands with trails, ponds, streams and ravines. There are also coyotes. Lots of them…and our little Ruby was out there somewhere and it was getting dark. While my son is grown and lives on his own Ruby spends many weekends and holidays at my house with my hounds Luke and Mocha. She is their sister and she RULES the roost when she is here…and at Colin’s place she is the queen and his girlfriend Sam is second fiddle to a 42 pound tyrant. None of us would have her any other way either.

We first called the Kitsap Humane Society but there is a weekend answering service. They only let you report dangerous animals on the weekend. No place to leave a message to report a lost little dog. No social accounts to be found to list your lost pet. Nothing. So I moved on to Paws, a cat adoption center who acts as a clearing house for lost pets at times. I could only leave a detailed message but nothing else.

I then called the director at Furrytale Farms, Suzannah Sloan. She ran down the list of places to call and then added…you can try posting it on Big Tent Island Moms forum and then post it on your Facebook to your friends. Dang…the crazy dog lady was ahead of the crazy internet search lady! Needless to say I hung up and went straight to Island Moms, Facebook, and Twitter to post away!

The tweets and retweets were amazing. The Facebook friends who took it upon themselves to post my post as their own status was overwhelming. A little more than 24 hours later and 100 flyers posted by family and friends as well as a day of hiking over hill and dale and though ravines and into nooks and crannies I previously did not know existed on this island and I am amazed! I handed out business cards with my number on it as well as my Twitter account. Random strangers went out on their accounts and posted our search and Ruby’s photo and followed me. That little rascal was a celebrity in no time. I went to the local cafe where our son works and a stranger walks up and asks, “Did you find your dog yet? I saw on Facebook where she was missing.” Apparently she is friends with a friend. Now she is my friend. BFF thanks to Ruby. I continued walking the neighborhood calling for Ruby and spreading the word that we were looking for her. Soon people I did not know were telling me they would ‘run in and post it on Facebook and Island Mom.’ Suddenly, Ruby had a legion of friends searching for her for me and for my son Colin. Wow.

The phone rang all during the first quarter of the Super Bowl. Did you find your dog? Hey, we saw a black dog on Island Center Road, etc.

Ruby Don't Take your Love to Town

None were Ruby sightings but we did hear from a lot of great people both on the phone and over the internet. My son left for work. His girlfriend settled in to endure a second night with Ruby gone…so she went in the back of their cottage to retrieve a book, a blanket, and to try and pass the time until daylight to go looking again. She came back into the entry hall and there was that damn dog.

Ruby was sitting on the front porch as if she had merely strolled down to the postbox and back. No worse for wear, hungry, wet, and a bit stinky from her adventure. Ecstatic I ran to the Cafe where my son works to let him know she was found. His grin lit up the room. A huge hurrah went up with the staff.

Ruby gave me a good lesson in the power of social media. She also gave me a lesson in patience, persistence, and the power of community both online and off. Ruby…you are a schmuck for turning my Superbowl Weekend upside down.

You are a wonderful little doggie for making me see how big a part of our family you have become in four short years. But you are still a rascal and I now know why the song Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town! always comes to mind when we see you…Don’t you dare do this to me again!

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