The phone always rings in the early hours of the morning. Five or six o'clock is the peak hour, and you can hear the caller talking visibly tired or even choking.
Calling at this point in time means that the person stayed up all night, tried various methods, and no longer had luck. Physically and mentally overwhelmed, emotions engulfing people, and they need a life-saving straw.
The pet detective put on plainclothes and acted in response, catching paw prints and hairs in the corners of the night. They are not the kind of elegant characters who wear deer hunting hats and smoke pipes, on the contrary, they are somewhat gray-headed and circled along the neighborhood, ready to be almost smiling with people passing by, and the highlight moment is flashlight, shouting cute overlapping words such as baby babe mimi and dog to cats, cats, dogs and dogs.
Hiring a pet detective is a costly expense and an option that involves many sorts of values. Lost pets put people's relationships with pets, families, communities, and even the city in which they live in an intriguing situation. Some people spend thousands of dollars searching for an orange cat, and others throw away the ragdolls that their families have bought for thousands of dollars, and then spend a lot of commissions to lie.
Along the clues of "looking for a cat" or "looking for a dog", the "reversal" that the detectives shake out is mostly a parent-child relationship, a contradiction between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and a neighborhood dispute. This is the drama of everyday life, and the truth in between is equally thrilling.
The following is based on the narration of "pet detective" Wu Lilei:
trace
At about 8 p.m. on January 8, we received an order from a Shanghai pet owner whose puppy, nono, was lost.
Nearly 70 kilometers from our site to the place where nono was lost, and after determining the pet hunting plan and pet information with the pet owner, the two team members immediately drove on the highway and arrived at the agreed location at about 9:30. The two team members inquired in detail about the situation before and after the noo was lost, posted dog hunting revelations online and offline, and then began to check the surrounding environment.
At 11 o'clock at night, they also communicated with the police at the nearby police station, wanting to look up the surveillance content of the day the dog was lost - as a pet detective, late night work has long been a common thing.
The hardest one, 4 of our team members went to Hangzhou Lin'an District for a mission, also to find dogs. The range of motion of the dog is large. For two consecutive days, everyone found 10 o'clock in the evening from 8 am, and each person walked 40,000 steps less per day, that is, hiked nearly 30 kilometers. The team members almost turned over the Lin'an area and finally found the dog the next night.
Pet detective is a very niche profession. Although more and more people have begun to do this business in the past two years, it is also a mixture of fish and dragons. I became interested in this matter in September 2018, and at first I wanted to learn theory through books, and I read some detective novels and detective textbooks, but later found that looking for cats and dogs is still quite different from finding people.
Our team was founded in 2019 and initially consisted of four or five people. At that time, everyone was in a semi-part-time state, mainly thinking that it was fun. In order to find out the "cat and dog road", we have installed a locator for stray cats, observed its trajectory, and participated in the search and rescue of small animals as a civil volunteer.
As a "pet detective", you have to be careful enough to observe the paw prints and hair left by the pet, and judge the whereabouts of the pet in combination with the scene environment and the temperament of the pet. As the saying goes, "the cat takes the cat road, the dog takes the dog road", the cat's action route is more hidden, like to drill into the corner of the wall, under the car, including the green belt of the community.
In the cold, cats often hide under the car
Dogs like to walk the avenue and are easily photographed by surveillance. In order to find the nono, on the day of January 9, our team members began to watch the surveillance from 6 o'clock in the morning, from the street to the inside of the community, everywhere did not fall.
Although there are rules to follow in being a "pet detective", when it comes to the practical level, there is no exact same pet, nor is there exactly the same environment. It doesn't work, and everything depends on you to judge it in light of the specific situation. What equipment you need to use at work, what tools you use at any time, including how to reduce your risk of scratching and biting, all require a little bit of experience. Many times, you even have to suffer some losses to get over this hurdle.
The running nono is constantly increasing the difficulty of our search. In the past two days, it has appeared at the subway entrance and also appeared in the parking lot. We almost finished work at noon on January 9, and learned that nono was being adopted by the uncle who collected waste in the community, and the team members rushed over immediately, but they didn't expect that it was the kung fu of the front and back feet, nono broke free of the rope, and there was no shadow.
Price
We have already taken more than 60 orders this month. Throughout 2021, we've probably recovered more than 600 pets. Without the impact of the pandemic, the number would have been even higher.
Taken out separately, our fees are not low. With a deposit of 1,000 yuan and the cheapest plan costing 4,000 yuan, a team member is allocated for a two-day search. If it involves orders for high-speed rail and airplanes, the same configuration and working hours cost from 5,000 yuan.
The fees and terms of service are clearly written in the contract. If you don't end up with a pet, we'll refund about half of the service charge on a pro-rata basis. It's also motivating the team to do their best to find pets, otherwise they won't get a commission.
- Some people will definitely feel that this cost has far exceeded the value of pets. If a pastoral cat is lost, such as a large orange cat that often wanders on the street and may not be able to sell for 200 yuan, is it worth hiring someone to spend thousands of dollars to find it?
Objectively speaking, our main users are indeed a group with higher incomes, and their pets are relatively particular about breed and appearance. The most expensive cat we have ever found is a race-grade ragdoll, and someone once offered 140,000 yuan to buy it, but the pet owner did not agree. Although the muppets themselves are also the more expensive breeds on the market, most people probably don't think a cat can be worth so much money.
In the flashlight, a cat hiding in the bushes
In the past two years, we have visited first-tier cities and provincial capitals in most provinces in the country, and we have also received orders from small counties. From the rich living in the mansion to the migrant workers in the urban-rural interface, I have seen the variety of life in the process of working.
In fact, there are people everywhere who can afford or are willing to spend this money. Some have a lot of toys and snacks for pets at home, and some have fewer at home. However, pet owners who can find us and are willing to spend this money for their pets often have deep feelings for pets.
Last year in Lu'an, Anhui Province, we helped a particularly wealthy pet owner find a dog. After the puppy was lost and adopted by nearby villagers, we took the pet owner over, and the pet owner wrapped a red envelope of 3,000 yuan, and the other party resolutely refused to accept it. Later, the two sides left a phone call with each other, saying that they would be friends in the future. This fate is far more valuable than those thousands of dollars.
The emotions of people and pets cannot be measured by money. The kind of big orange cat that is the most common on the street, there are indeed people who are willing to spend thousands of dollars to find it.
However, sometimes we also receive calls for help, and someone asks, I don't want to keep this pet, can you recycle it? Occasionally we will help contact the adoption. Breeds of cats and dogs are usually more popular, pastoral cats and dogs are almost meaningless, if no one cares, there is a high probability that they will become stray cats and dogs. From this point of view, the fate of pets is still quite different.
Informant
Nono has left traces in the surveillance footage of the east, south and north gates of the community. The community has multiple exits, and the road conditions outside the community are very complicated. In addition to checking surveillance, we also posted a lot of dog hunting revelations.
Finding cats may be better, but finding dogs especially involves factors related to people. The biggest fear is that the dog will be taken away by the car as soon as it goes out, especially in some places where there is no monitoring, and you can only collect information by posting dog hunting notices and asking neighbors. If the person who took the dog was not a nearby resident, it was even more difficult to start.
If you don't like to talk and are afraid to deal with people, I'm afraid you won't be able to do the "pet detective" business. Every time we take on a task, we basically have to come to an unfamiliar environment and communicate with strangers.
Pet owners look for their pets in the bushes
For a while, we dressed uniformly, with the company logo printed on the uniform, and specifically emphasized what we do. I didn't expect to reveal the identity of the "pet detective", but it brought us some unnecessary trouble. People either haven't heard of this profession or think you're making money from it, so why should I help you?
Over time, we have also figured out a set of methods. With the consent of our pet owners, we will communicate in their name. This makes it easier for others to understand how you want to find a pet.
As outsiders, we have to mobilize the power of the local people. The objects we focus on are the cleaning, security, and couriers in the community, who have a fixed range of activities and will pay more attention to the surrounding environment. When we need to make it convenient, we will stuff the box of cigarettes or buy something. Because we did get help, and we didn't ask people to help us do something illegal.
The uncle and aunt who walk the dog in the community are also very important. Office workers are more stressed at work, have a fast pace of life, and are less likely to pay attention to information in the community. And the uncles and aunts who have a lot of free time are active members of the dog walking group, and if you have a good relationship with them, you can quickly grasp the local social resources. How to become a friend of Grandpa and Auntie's circle of friends depends on your personal ability.
However, there are also times when we can't do anything about it. Some pet owners do not have a dog license or the dog license has expired, and some people are uncivilized to raise dogs, or maliciously reported by neighbors, in short, the dog has been arrested, and in these cases, we do not have so much ability to get it back.
Managers are different in different places. We communicate more smoothly in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, but we run into walls everywhere in Xi'an. Recently we have received a lot of requests for help from Xi'an, and we have no choice but to teach some methods as much as possible, so that the pet owner can find it himself, but some people can't go out when they learn.
falsehood
Constantly discovering and investigating clues, we also see the whole picture of things little by little like a detective solving a case.
Last month, we received a dog hunting assignment in Shanghai. The order was placed for my granddaughter, who was in her early 20s, and told us that when Grandma went out to walk her dog, the puppy ran away on her own. When we arrived at the scene to ask for details, the old lady suddenly said, I threw this dog away, you can't find it. She declined to give more information, not even where the dog was lost. We had no way to check it out, so we had to return the order.
Older generations and young people may not have the same concept of pets, and some elderly people are not even very receptive to having pets. We have encountered this situation, the pet owner does not know the specific situation of the loss of the pet, the family knows but does not tell you the truth. There will even be some dog blood plots where the family tears their faces in front of us.
If we know in advance that there is disagreement in the customer's home, we will try to refuse to accept the order. This affects our efficiency and success rate too much. Sometimes, customers will lie in the early communication process, we talk on the phone is one situation, and when we get to the scene, it is another situation. The most exaggerated one was when we went there to find out that the person who called us was still underage.
Eat a long and wise, and then we have to verify whether the customer is at least 18 years old when we take the order. We will also handle orders from college students carefully, because they may also have to spend their parents' money. If the customer pays extra attention to the payment method, proposes to pay in installments, or wants to pay by credit card, then we will also advise the customer to take care of their own life first.
Doing this line of work seems to be dealing with pets, in fact, more often than not, dealing with people. If the "truth" will cause more harm to the customer, then we will also consider whether to use some white lies to leave the customer with some thoughts.
Almost every month, we receive one or two doomed missions: the cat jumped from the high-rise windowsill and fell to our death before we arrived. Some customers are in a trance after the loss of their pets, and when they see customers on the verge of collapse, we would rather refund the service fee and say that we have not found it, so that at least we can leave a thought for others.
Once, we went to Chongqing to help a girl find her lost cat. The girl lives in a villa at home, and at a glance, she knows that the family has special money. Through surveillance and scene traces, we determined that the girl's mother was related to the loss of the cat. When we put the relevant evidence in front of her mother, she told us that she had always opposed her daughter's cat, but her daughter insisted on keeping it, and now the cat has been given away by her. "You said you didn't find it, and returned the money to my girl." How much money she gave you before, I'll give it to you. ”
We did complete the task of finding the cat, but we couldn't provoke the mother-daughter relationship, and directly told the girl that your mother threw away the cat. Later we told the girl we hadn't found more clues. In addition, to be honest, they have made such a fuss because of their cats, and this home is probably not a good home for cats.
Golden
Puppy nono met well-wishers. On the morning of January 10, an older brother called to say nono was by his side. After getting the message, we successfully picked up the nono. The two team members also paid out of their own pockets and brought two cartons of milk and a bag of apples to the well-meaning big brother.
The process of finding the no is relatively tortuous, I did not have a task, staring in the group, especially tangled, especially heart-wrenching. I wanted to help, but I didn't know how to help, and I was afraid that I would say the wrong thing and affect the judgment of the team members on the spot.
From being a "pet detective" to this day, I remember the name of every kitten and puppy I've ever handled. There are names for all kinds, some are called fruit names, some are called cartoon character names, and there are many names for drinks such as Coke and Sprite. To say that I am most impressed by a giant named "McDougal". McDougal was the first mission I received as a "pet detective", but unfortunately I didn't find it at first.
Three months later, one day at four o'clock in the afternoon, I was doing business at the bank, when I suddenly received a phone call saying that Mai Du was in Langfang Dachang. As soon as I listened, I told the banker directly, I will not do it. Then he drove to pick up the dog owner and went directly from Changping to Dachang.
The hunt for favors is about to succeed
The other party didn't lie to me, I really found McDoubt. I still remember the excitement at that time, and I was particularly impressed.
Now, Mai Du has come to Nanjing with his master to live. I'm in regular contact with owner McDougall and he asks me questions about dog ownership. At that time, Mai Du went from the big factory to Nanjing, which was also the consignment I gave to contact.
It's actually sad to say that I had the idea of becoming a "pet detective" because I didn't find my own dog.
I used to have a golden retriever, and just after it was full moon, I drove it alone from Tangshan to Beijing. Just like raising a child, you take the bottle to feed it every day, and the feelings are fed out little by little. In 2018, the factory where I worked was asked to relocate to Tianjin, and I took the dog with me and kept it in the factory yard.
Two months later, the dog was lost. At that time, I asked wherever I went, and I also printed small advertisements and posted them everywhere. After a week, I finally found out that the dog was in the factory building opposite us. But by the time I saw it, it was only a skin. The day after it was lost, it was killed and eaten.
I haven't come out for half a year, and I really feel like I'm breaking down. After several years of hard work, I am really the same as my own children. During that time, I thought every day, if I could find it quickly, would I be able to save its life? I read the information every day, and my family thinks I'm scared. Now I've helped others find so many puppies, but I still blame myself when I think of my own puppies. I felt that if I could have even 1/3 of the skills I have now, I would be able to find it very quickly. It's really not hard to find.
Golden Retrievers are very dear. Now as soon as I see someone else's golden retriever, I can't wait to go up and pick it up twice. Later, some friends wanted to give me a golden retriever, and I wanted to come and go, but I still didn't dare to raise it. I'm really afraid that this will happen again.
Interview, author: Magnesium box
Edit: Sebastian
Images courtesy of interviewees