WAUSAU – David Woods started out as a lost dog searcher about 15 years ago when a large, furry black lab named Sweet Pea left her home after taking 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 took action. He designed, printed and distributed flyers about lost dogs. He spent about four hours a day, two hours before his work as a machinist and two hours after, for two weeks, driving through Wausau neighborhoods where people reported seeing Sweet Pea.
In the process, he contacted Lost Dogs of Wisconsin, a young nonprofit that was just starting to use the internet and social media to help find lost dogs. Lost Dogs counselors 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 to whom Woods had given a flyer; Sweet Pea had followed them home. His son-in-law picked her up and a little later the reunion was unforgettable.
“It’s a huge thrill. It’s a thrill and relief,” Woods said. “And then everyone’s tears start flowing, you know? Happy tears.”
After Sweet Pea returned 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 to volunteer because they needed help in the northern part of the state. Woods said he would, and an obsession took root. He has worked with Lost Dogs of Wisconsin for fifteen years and estimates he has helped reunite thousands of lost dogs with their families.
“It’s probably become an addiction over time,” Woods said.
Using social media to raise awareness for lost dogs
Woods got in on the ground floor of the Lost Dogs of Wisconsin, and it has been growing since he started volunteering with the organization. He estimates there were about five to 12 volunteers working on it at the time, most of them 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 collaborates and shares resources with the Pet FBI, a national organization that locates lost pets.
“I remember on our Facebook page (facebook.com/@findfido) when we were just happy with 3,000 likes. Now we have 110,000 followers,” Woods said. “And that’s really how it spreads.”
About 6,000 people follow Woods on his personal Facebook page, and he has built a reputation as a dog tracker. He is a well-known regular on the Wausau neighborhood Facebook pages. When someone posts about their lost dog on one of those sites, it doesn’t take long for someone to tag Woods on the post.
His ability to communicate through social media has made him “the go-to guy in Marathon County and surrounding counties if you’ve lost your dog,” says Kathy Pobloskie, who, along with three other people, founded Lost in 2010 Founded Dogs of Wisconsin. “He’s just done an exemplary job of putting himself in the public eye.”
It’s not always easy. Well-known volunteers like Woods receive phone calls in the middle of the night, spend hours online sharing and posting flyers about lost dogs, and talking to 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 has found his place in it.
“I really think people saw from the beginning how supportive 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 years, he physically went out to find dogs, set up live traps and watch them for hours. But he’s now 65 and has dealt with long-term hip and back problems.
“I’m too old to chase dogs,” he said. “I can’t do that anymore.”
Now he does most of his work on his keyboard. He still sets up the large cages of treats in an attempt to trap dogs, but cameras monitor and send Woods an alert on his phone if anything happens.
Woods says he has no data on the success rate he and Lost Dogs of Wisconsin have, but he believes they find the majority of lost dogs.
The motto of Lost Dogs of Wisconsin is “Never Give Up,” and Woods lives by that. Unless a dog’s body is found, he said, “we’ll keep looking.”
He always keeps hope. In one particularly memorable discovery, a Madison woman lost her dog while staying at a cabin in the Northwoods. She, Woods and Lost Dogs continued the search until the dog was found 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 continues to appeal to him.
“Dogs are part of the family,” Woods said. “And even if we are not on site, we do a happy dance behind our computers when we report a found dog.”
Still, even he wonders what drove him to work so hard looking for dogs after all these years.
‘Don’t know. It just feels good to help,” Woods said. “If I lost a dog, I would want someone to help me.”
For more information about Lost Dogs of Wisconsin, including tips on what to do if your dog goes missing or information about volunteering, visit lostdogsofwisconsin.org.
Keith Uhlig has been writing about Wisconsin, its residents and all it has to offer since 2000. He grew up in Colby and enjoys hiking around the state. He can be reached at kuhlig@gannett.com, and is on Facebook, X and Threads.
This article originally appeared in the Green Bay Press-Gazette: A Wisconsin man has reunited thousands of lost dogs with their families
