SO. Senior Blind Dog Disappears During Storm. After 33 Days, AI Reunites Pet with Family

NEED TO KNOW

• A senior blind dog named Sandy was missing for 33 days after running away from home during a storm
• Sandy and her family reunited with help from Love Lost, an AI-powered database that matches photos of missing dogs with pets recently dropped off at shelters or posted on community social media platforms
• Over 140,000 pets have been reunited with their families through Love Lost

A senior blind dog, separated from her family during a thunderstorm, was reunited with her owners after 33 days apart, thanks to the help of humans and AI.

It was early June in San Antonio, Texas, when a thunderstorm spooked Sandy, a 12-year-old blind dog, causing her to run out into the tumultuous weather and darkness away from home.

“I was very worried and so scared for her, especially because she is blind and a senior,” Juliette Gonzalez, Sandy’s owner, tells PEOPLE. “I was scared to death.”

Gonzalez searched tirelessly for her beloved dog to no avail. After searching her neighborhood and checking local shelters for Sandy, Gonzalez decided to try Love Lost, a free, nationwide database for lost and missing pets that uses AI to help pet owners find their lost animals.

Love Lost operates by taking photos of missing pets submitted by owners and comparing these images to photographs of thousands of animals that have recently arrived at shelters without owners. The program searches for a visual match between the missing pet and an animal at a shelter to determine if the lost pet ended up in the shelter system after disappearing.

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Gonzalez created a profile on Love Lost for Sandy, hoping the program would find a match at some rescue location she hadn’t thought to check.

On July 4, Love Lost notified Gonzalez that there was a match for a dog who looked like Sandy. The dog mom checked the match and recognized the dog in the shelter photo from the Footbridge Foundation as none other than Sandy herself. Despite some weight loss, Gonzalez knew it was her furry friend. 

“I was so excited, and my heart was racing,” Gonzalez said. 

The relieved dog owner reached out to the director of the Footbridge Foundation and explained that Sandy, her dog, somehow ended up at the rescue after being away from home for 33 days. The Footbridge Foundation was excited to reunite Gonzalez and Sandy after their month apart.  

“She was so very happy. Her tail was wagging so much,” Gonzalez said. “Sandy is very happy to be back home with our family and playing in her yard with her brother.” 

Love Lost is a part of the national nonprofit organization Petco Love. In case the unthinkable happens, pet lovers like Gonzalez can upload a photo of their missing pet to Love Lost, providing another helpful avenue for finding their furry friend.

Love Lost is free and uses AI-powered technology to match photos of missing pets with pictures of pets at shelters that have been uploaded by animal rescue organizations from across the country. The program also comb through missing pet and animal sighting posts shared on platforms like Nextdoor and Ring.

“One major obstacle to reuniting lost pets with their families is the sheer number of places where people can choose to post lost and found pets online,” Abbie Moore, chief operating officer of Petco Love, tells PEOPLE. “Having pets posting on different platforms is not at all helpful; if I lose my pet and post somewhere, and you find my pet and post somewhere else, we are not going to connect. That’s a missed opportunity.”

Moore continues, “No matter where a lost or found pet is originally posted, that pet will come into the Love Lost database, where they can be matched with posts made on any other platform. It’s pretty revolutionary!”

Over 140,000 lost pets have been reunited with their families through Love Lost so far.

“For every lost pet there’s a heartbroken human feeling absolutely frantic with worry,” Moore says. “Pets make our families whole. They bring us peace and comfort and unconditional love. Love Lost keeps families together.”

Love Lost is launching a new feature this fall. The “Search Party” feature allows pet parents to organize help in finding their missing pets. 

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“When a pet goes missing, almost every pet parent has help from the community to find their pet, but 75% of them find it difficult to manage and organize help,” says Aaron Klein, head of product at Petco Love. “Search Party can reduce the mental and emotional burden on pet parents by offering structured ways to ask for help, like printing out flyers, posting on social media, and coordinating where people should be searching.”

“More reunions can happen quickly and collaboratively through Love Lost in neighborhoods across the country,” Klein added.