Leander Animal Services Uses Police Department's Page For 'Most Wanted'

LEANDER, TX -- Animal Services officers don't limit their search for lost animals to flyers on utility poles -- far from it.

Instead, they manage a Facebook page featured on the Leander Police Department's site that's proven a valuable tool in reuniting lost pets with their family members throughout Leander and Cedar Park neighborhoods.

Deanna Ange -- "mom" to Cricket and Maddie -- told KEYE-TV how the portal helped her reunite with her lost doggies. She recalled coming home to work, horrified after she realized they had escaped from the backyard.

"I came home and could not find them anywhere, and I noticed a hole in the gate," she told the news station.

Leander Animal Services to the rescue.

"I'm not looking for a stray," explained officer Leslie Wilson in describing the mission of her job. "I'm really looking for a family member."

Take Cricket, for example. Wilson found the dog wandering the streets and immediately knew it was an escapee rather than a stray: "She was so well groomed, that I just knew it was somebody's fur baby, that it was someone's special pet."

Supervisor Edna Stambaugh said the use of the police department's social media page to help locate lost animals has proved invaluable.

"We're able to post about them and ask to see if anybody knows about them, if anybody recognized them," she said.

This is not your grandfather's dog catcher, Ange suggested

"As kids growing up we always think, oh the dogcatcher is just this horrible person that takes your dog," said Ange. "These ladies are not, these officers are amazing and they are so vested in getting animals back to their owners."

Click here to view the Facebook page. Who knows, maybe you'll recognize one of those fur babies.