I know craigslist.org gets alot of bad press because of all the scams and even a few rapes and murders by internet predators, but I just gained quite a bit of respect for that site.
Last night my wife and I realized that our German Shepherd wasn't around (it's a tiny little house, so a big lumbering German Shepherd is kinda hard to miss)
and we immediately started walking the neighborhood looking for him but we were not successful. I was pretty upset about it to say the least.
So this morning I made a bunch of cardboard signs to put on the power poles and such. I stopped into a gas station to fill 'er up and asked the girl behind the counter to keep an eye out for my dog, and I left my name and number. Another customer in the gas station overheard me and said that his neighbor found a German Shepherd this morning and posted a "found dog" ad on craigslist, but me being the dumbass that I am, didn't even take down the guy's info.. i just went home to check craigslist. I didn't see any ads that matched the description, and I thought the guy was just being a dickhead and fucking with me..
So anyway, I posted my own "lost dog" ad, and went back out to hang the signs.
I shit you not, less than 1 hour after I posted the ad, I got a phone call from a woman saying that there's a dude on craigslist with a "found german shepherd" ad. turns out, the guy is kind of old, and i guess he just didn't understand that craigslist has a "lost and found" section as well as a "pets" section, and he posted his ad under "free products".
He was just a few blocks down the street from me, and sure as shit, there was my dog. (I still have no idea how he got out, but needless to say, I'll be getting a collar and tag for him after all this)
After I had my dog back, I recieved 4 or 5 more calls (until my dumb ass finally deleted the "lost dog" ad...) all saying the same thing. informing me of the other guy's add.
Moral of the story: craigslist worked like a charm for me. The massive amount of support I received from the local community was just overwhelming. I had my dog back in less than an hour after posting on craigslist. I know that everyone may not get so lucky, but it certainly is worth the 2 or 3 minutes it takes to post an ad.
