from Lynn Nicholas
I’m sure most all of you are aware of and have received Amber Alerts for missing children from time to time. We have created a text message alert that works the same way for missing pets at Creston, but you must opt in to send or receive these alerts. The purpose of this article is to encourage you to sign up for the alert regardless of whether or not you are a pet owner because you can use it to notify those linked about a missing pet or report if you have found one. Additionally, the Alert can be used to notify participants that the pet has been found
Please consider signing up for the Spike Alert.
All you need is to scan the QR code below to sign-up.
Or you can use this link: Spike Alert
Once you are signed up, add SPIKE Alert – Creston Missing Pet to your contacts with this number: 323-929-2391 and you are ready to use it if need be.
Thank you in advance for helping to keep our fur babies safe!
The system is called the SPIKE Alert, named after a mellow wire-haired Jack Russell terrier who belonged to John and Sue Travers. Twelveyear-old Spike was deathly afraid of storms, so one day when the door was opened during a thunderstorm, he took off and was missing for days. Everyone in Creston was on the lookout and eventually with the help of a tracker,
Spike was lured out of the woods by John and Sue who cooked bacon near the place where his scent had been picked up by the tracking dog! The familiar smell was too much for Spike to resist and he emerged from the woods, a shaggy but happy mess.
Fortunately, this story had a happy ending and Spike lived several more years with his doting parents.
In the intervening years we have had other pets go on the lam for a while, terrifying their owners. The most recent escapee was Carly Zimmer, a miniature schnauzer, who made her way out of Creston, down and across Mount Hebron Road! Sending individual texts, making calls, and posting on Facebook while frantically searching for your pet are not as effective as reaching people immediately through one text alert.
Also, not everyone is on Creston Community Facebook or like me look at it only sporadically. In Carly’s case the Bush-Augustine’s were alerted and it just so happened a family they had met on Mount Hebron contacted them to say they had possession of the little dog, so all ended well.