WAUSAU – David Woods got his start as a lost-dog finder about 15 years ago when a big furry black lab named Sweet Pea bolted from her house after she got a bath.
Sweet Pea lived with Woods’ daughter and son-in-law in Wausau, a few blocks from where Woods and his wife, Cheryl, live. Woods went into action. He designed, printed and handed out lost-dog flyers. He spent about four hours a day, two hours before his job as a heavy equipment operator and two hours after, for two weeks driving around Wausau-area neighborhoods where people reported spotting Sweet Pea.
In the process, he contacted Lost Dogs of Wisconsin, a fledgling nonprofit organization that was just getting its start using the internet and social media to help find dogs that were lost. The advisers of Lost Dogs told Woods he was on the right track, helped him get the word out on social media, and gave him hope.
Finally, the family heard from someone whom Woods had given a flyer to; Sweet Pea had followed them home. His son-in-law retrieved her, and a little while later, the reunion was unforgettable.
“It’s a gigantic thrill. It’s a thrill and relief,” Woods said. “And then the tears start flowing with everybody, you know? Happy tears.”
After Sweet Pea was home, Woods called the folks at Lost Dogs of Wisconsin to tell them the good news and thank them for their help.
They told him he should volunteer, because they needed help in the northern part of the state. Woods said he would, and an obsession took root. He’s been working with Lost Dogs of Wisconsin for 15 years, and he estimates that he’s helped reunite thousands of lost dogs with their families.
“It’s probably turned into an addiction over time,” Woods said.
Using social media to get the word out about lost dogs
Woods got in on the ground floor of the Lost Dogs of Wisconsin, and it’s been growing ever since he started volunteering with the organization. He reckons there were somewhere around five to 12 volunteers working with it back then, most based in southeastern Wisconsin. Now there are 60 to 70 volunteers across the state, he said.
The Lost Dogs organization has expanded to other states, and now there is a Lost Cats of Wisconsin Facebook page. The group now partners and shares resources with the Pet FBI, a national organization that tracks lost pets.
“I can remember on our Facebook page (facebook.com/@findfido) when we were just happy to have 3,000 likes. Now we’re up to 110,000 followers,” Woods said. “And that’s how it really spreads.”
About 6,000 people follow Woods on his personal Facebook page, and he’s developed a reputation as the dog finder. He’s a well-known regular on neighborhood Facebook pages in Wausau. If someone posts about their lost dog on one of those sites, it isn’t long before someone tags Woods on the post.
His ability to engage via social media has helped him become “the guy in Marathon County, and surrounding counties, to go to when you’ve lost your dog,” said Kathy Pobloskie, who founded Lost Dogs of Wisconsin with three other people in 2010. “He’s just done an exemplary job of putting himself out there in the public.”
It’s not always easy. High-profile volunteers such as Woods get phone calls in the middle of the night, spend hours online sharing and posting lost-dog flyers, and talk with scared people about the best ways to get their dogs home.
Not all volunteers need to take on that public role, Pobloskie said, but Woods found his niche in it.
“I really think right from the beginning people saw how helpful he was, and how willing he was to be that person,” she said.
‘It just feels good to help’ find lost dogs
But Woods has had to cut back on some of his strategies over the years. For many years, he would physically go out and try to find dogs, setting up live traps and watching them for hours. But he’s 65 now, and he’s had to deal with some long-term hip and back problems.
“I’m too old to be running around after dogs,” he said. “I can’t do that anymore.”
Now he does most of his work at his keyboard. He still sets out the large cages with treats in an effort to trap dogs, but trail cameras do the watching, sending Woods an alert on his phone when something happens.
Woods says he doesn’t have data on the success rate he and Lost Dogs of Wisconsin have, but he believes that they find the majority of lost dogs.
The motto of Lost Dogs of Wisconsin is “Never give up,” and Woods lives by it. Unless a dog’s body is found, he said, “we’re gonna keep looking.”
He always holds out hope. In one particularly memorable find, a Madison woman lost her dog while staying in a cabin in the Northwoods. She, Woods and Lost Dogs kept the search up until the dog was recovered after 64 days.
The dog survived a hunting season and two extremely cold snaps, Woods said.
Ultimately the idea that he can help reunite people with their dogs keeps drawing him in.
“Dogs are part of the family,” Woods said. “And even if we’re not onsite, we’ll do a happy dance in front of our computers when we report on a found dog.”
Still, even he wonders what has driven him to work so hard at this dog-finding effort after all these years.
“I don’t know. It just feels good to help,” Woods said. “If I had lost a dog, I would like someone to help me.”
To learn more about Lost Dogs of Wisconsin, including tips on what to do if your dog goes missing or information on volunteering, visit lostdogsofwisconsin.org.
Keith Uhlig has been writing about Wisconsin, its people and all it has to offer since 2000. Raised in Colby, he loves wandering around the state. He can be reached at kuhlig@gannett.com, and is on Facebook, X and Threads.
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