Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Private investigator will track your lost pet
FORT LAUDERDALE – It was a long, long trip for a ferret on the lam.
The white-haired pet slipped out of its home in Kendall and wound up in Atlanta.
That’s where Jamie Katz, a licensed pet detective, found it after its distraught owner pleaded for help.
Katz, of Fort Lauderdale, is one of a rare breed: a licensed private investigator who traded the traditional gumshoe world for a life tracking wandering animals.
She is one of about 10 full-time pet
detectives around the country, says Katz and other private eyes with that specialty.
“I don’t look for people anymore,” says Katz, 36, who works out of a tiny apartment she shares with her four dogs. “I can find anyone anywhere, but animals are what I care about.”
Katz and her canine team — Fletcher the terrier mix and Gable, a Brittany spaniel — have tracked down lost cats, dogs, parrots and, of course, that ferret.
Her tools are flyers, social media and the supersensitive noses of her two canine partners.
“Fletcher and Gable will tell me if the animal walked off the property or was driven away,” says Katz, whose fees start at $305. “If my dog loses scent right at their driveway, that means the dog was put in a car. If the dog ran away, my dogs can follow that scent.”
Katz found one missing dog in as few as five minutes with a quick search on social media. But not every case is that easy.
A French bull dog named Brunno went missing in Fort Lauderdale last Halloween and took 180 days to track down.
Owner Jenna Stimson hired Katz after getting a referral from a friend. When the pooch wasn’t found right away, Stimson spent $400 on pet psychics, to no avail.
She checked animal shelters, posted bright yellow “Lost Dog” signs and eventually offered a $5,000 reward.
“My dad thought I was nuts,” Stimson says.
After several long months, Katz followed up on a tip and was able to track Brunno to a neighborhood just 1.5 miles from his home.
“As soon as we got home, he went flying up the stairs into my room and grabbed his pillow,” Stimson says. “It was almost like he never left home.”
Katz says she gets referrals from around the country. That’s how she ended up on the case after a Yorkie mix owned by the daughter of basketball great Michael Jordan went missing in Charlotte, N.C.
The dog slipped out of the house after a pet sitter left her outside while heading back into the house for a coat. Katz found the dog — which had been sold for $40 — five days later.
Stephanie Evans owned the ferret that went missing missing last year in Kendall.
“My dad accidentally left the door open,” Evans says. “Benjamin slipped out. At first I thought he was hiding somewhere. After some time I started panicking. We tore the whole house apart.”
Evans combed the neighborhood and posted pleas for help on Facebook and Instagram. Then a friend told her about Katz, who soon showed up with her two tracking dogs.
“They sniffed out the whole neighborhood,” Evans says. No luck. Then Katz found a post on Instagram about a ferret that was found nearby. The person who found Benjamin gave him to someone else, who turned him over to a family from out of town on their way back to Atlanta.
Two weeks later, Benjamin was back home in Kendall after Evans and her dad drove to Georgia to get him back.
Sometimes the trail doesn’t lead far from home.
A few months ago, Katz got a call from a frantic woman who said her cat had disappeared but she could still hear it howling.
“I asked if she was sure the cat was inside the apartment,” Katz says. “She said they could hear him crying but could not find him.”
Katz put Gable on the case.
“My dog found him in five seconds,” she says. “He was stuck inside one of the cabinets in the kitchen. We had to take apart the cabinet.”