Reuniting pets with their owners Heather has happy tails
IN THE 10 years Heather McKindley has run various Lost and Found Pets Townsville websites and Facebook pages, she has lost count of the number of pets she has helped reunite with owners.
Ms McKindley, of Kirwan, selflessly spends hours of her time day and night helping people around Townsville find their beloved missing pets.
“I love animals. I just see how many animals are looking for their homes and the number of people in the Townsville community who have lost their pets get upset,” she said.
When asked how many animals she had helped rehome, Ms McKindley humbly replied “quite a few”.
Now retired, Ms McKindley runs seven lost and found Facebook pages – including the Lost Pets Townsville, which has more than 8500 followers.
She said dogs, cats and birds were the pets she helped back home the most but she has also helped reunite some scaly critters including snakes and turtles with their owners.
Ms McKindley moved to Townsville when she was in the Army.
“I have chronic manic depression because of the Army … I have panic attacks and things,” she said.
With the chance of working from home, she is able to overcome the difficulties she faces when it comes to dealing with people in public.
“At home I can just do things at my own pace, this way I can still help people,” she said.
“I just keep going on the page and talking to the people. I spend a lot of time talking to people, I make a lot of phone calls to vets.”
When the mother of two is not looking after her own children or two pet galahs and dog, or on the phone, she is driving around picking up or dropping off lost pets.
In her time of managing the lost pet pages, Ms McKindley said some of the animals were found hundreds of kilometres from where they originally went missing.
“A dog was taken from Townsville, its owners went to see the Cowboys. When they were away at the game, the dog went missing.
“I found the dog in Charters Towers.
“The neighbours had taken the dog for a drive and dumped it.”