The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jamie Katz: pet detective
South Florida woman has reunited 150 pets with their owners as a bona fide pet detective.
Jamie Katz is a registered private eye with a degree in criminology and has trained her own dogs to catch the scent of missing pets.
MIAMI — Jamie Katz and her dad were constantly evicted from apartments. The dog barks from inside their homes were ear-splitting. The stench from litter boxes on balconies, overwhelming.
“He couldn’t say no to me,” said Katz. “And I couldn’t say no to the animals.”
That was about two decades ago and Katz, 36, still can’t say no to the animals — especially missing ones. In the past few weeks alone, Katz, who operates out of a cage-cluttered Fort Lauderdale, Fla., apartment, has helped track down a French bulldog that escaped a yard and a Chihuahua stolen from an animal clinic in South Miami-Dade.
Another French bulldog named Brunno went missing for 180 days — that’s three dog years — before Katz reunited him with owners earlier this year, a body-wagging reunion in Fort Lauderdale caught on video. And last year, she helped basketball legend Michael Jordan’s daughter find her missing Pomeranian.
Katz is a bona fide pet detective. She is a registered private eye with a degree in criminology, has trained her own dogs to catch the scent of missing pets and — arguably key to her success — has mad skills for using new and old media to spotlight her mission.
“Jamie is sharp. Jamie is amazing,” said Emmanuel Laboy, who got his French bulldog Bella back after two agonizing weeks. “And most important, Bella is super happy.”
Katz’s ability to reunite cats, dogs, parrots and even ferrets with their owners, coupled with a recent surge of positive press, has made her South Florida’s most well-known pet detective. Savvy at gaining attention, Katz isn’t shy about highlighting her name — a serendipitous homonym — to publicize her growing business.
Since creating her company less than two years ago, Katz said she’s taken on 240 cases and solved 150 of them. Most of the time, she reunites animals that have escaped homes. Stolen pets only account for about 10 percent of her business, she said.
Last year, Katz received an anonymous call and was soon helping Jasmine Jordan — the daughter of the Chicago Bulls Hall of Famer — find Mila, her missing Pomeranian Yorkie. Then, an African grey parrot named Oscar Gray was reunited with its owner after a tough negotiation.
Earlier this month Benny, a four-year-old Chihuahua owned by South Miami-Dade veterinarian Juan Fernandez Bravo, was retrieved. Two women and a man had snatched Benny inside the animal clinic as Bravo and others tended to 10 rescued animals. Shortly after, Katz got a local television station to air the story, Bravo received a call saying his dog was safe. The dog was returned and Bravo paid a $1,500 reward.