Winter Park Lost Pets is teaming up with the city’s public safety divisions to expand its mission of protecting four-legged family members. Free window clings are available free of charge as a means of alerting first responders to the presence of pets in the event of a home emergency.
“We saw a need in the community for this information to help our firefighters and pet owners,” said Winter Park Lost Pets co-founder, Judy Charuhas.
Charuhas and co-founder, Shelley Heistand, have been reuniting lost pets with their owners since 2010 with assistance from volunteers and members of the community. The nonprofit relies on pet owners to register their companions in a confidential database that is used to cross-reference information on recently found pets. “We can search our database for a potential match,” Charuhas said. “If a match is identified, we contact the owners.” Lost and found listings are also shared via an email list and on Facebook, and Twitter. The organization has reunited more than 2,560 pets with their owners and helped provide services from grooming to vaccinations.
Their new collaboration began this year and included a donation of pet oxygen masks to Winter Park Fire-Rescue Department. Donations of a pet microchip scanner and a K9 Unit vest were also made to Winter Park Police Department. Efforts began paying off in June when rescue units responded to reports of a house fire and discovered a 15-year-old cat during an interior search. One of the donated pet oxygen masks was used in the rescue that returned the cat safely to its owner.
Window clings are available at the following locations:
- Fire Station 61, 343 W Canton Ave.
- Fire Station 62, 300 S. Lakemont Ave.
- Fire Station 64, 1439 Howell Branch Rd.
- Winter Park City Hall, 401 S. Park Ave.
- Pet Supermarket, 2061 Aloma Ave.
- Bleus Bubbles Pet Grooming, 3708 Howell Branch Rd.
- Garden Veterinary Clinic, 1479 Gene St.
- Performance Vision Center, 1708 Lee Rd.
For lost pet listings and information on supporting the Winter Park List Pets mission, visit winterparklostpets.com.
