The first night my dog was lost, I called and whistled for him from the back door most of the night.

Cathy Blaine and Tracy Smith, of Port Elmsley, Ont., were away for a week in December 2007 when their two-year-old Pug ‘Caya’ disappeared from a friend’s front yard after being let out to pee. That same month, Tracy Law’s eight-year-old Siberian Husky ‘Sheseido’ disappeared from a dog park.