Ivelis Alday accepted that the dog she adopted 13 years ago and had cuddled every day was probably gone forever.
Her Shih Tzu and Maltese mix, Sweetie, had been missing for nearly two months after bolting from her house in Southern California. Alday placed posters of Sweetie around town and checked social media constantly. She had no leads on Sweetie’s whereabouts.
She was shocked one January morning when she received an email from an artificial intelligence service showing a picture of Sweetie at a shelter. Right away, Alday recognized Sweetie’s ring-shaped nostrils and black fur.
Alday screamed in excitement.
“The neighbors must’ve thought that I was crazy,” Alday told The Washington Post.
According to the Animal Humane Society, 1 in 3 pets go missing during their lifetimes. But as technology has progressed, so have resources for finding lost pets. Pets have digitally carried their owners’ information in microchips for decades, and in recent years, social media, GPS collars and thermal cameras have helped find pets.
AI is the latest technology making those reunions easier. People send photos of their lost pets to a database, and AI compares the pets’ features — including facial structure, coat pattern and ear shape — to photos of stray pets that have been spotted elsewhere. Many of the stray pets have already been taken to shelters.
While runaway pets that have been living on the streets might look dirtier or more overgrown than when they lived at home, AI helps match their features.
Doorbell cameras have recently implemented facial recognition for dogs, and perhaps the largest AI database for pet reunification is Petco Love Lost, which says it has reunited more than 200,000 pets and owners since 2021, including Alday and Sweetie.
After owners upload photos of their lost pets, AI scans thousands of photos of lost animals from social media and from about 3,000 animal shelters and rescues that use the software, according to Petco Love, an animal welfare nonprofit that’s affiliated with the pet store Petco. It notifies owners if two photos match.
Julie Castle, chief executive of Best Friends Animal Society, a national animal welfare organization, said AI shouldn’t replace microchipping but is another tool to help desperate pet owners and overcrowded shelters.
“As controversial as AI is right now, this is one of those areas where it’s a real win,” Castle said, “and could really help change the game in terms of reuniting pets.”
Juliette Gonzalez came across Petco Love’s AI in June last year while searching for her blind pit bull mix, Sandy, who ran off during a thunderstorm. Gonzalez uploaded a photo of Sandy to the database, showing the dog lounging in grass with her tongue out.
She hoped somebody was caring for Sandy, 13, who was not microchipped, but she feared the worst.
When Gonzalez checked Petco Love’s website one morning in July, she saw AI had matched her photo of Sandy with one of the dogs at a San Antonio animal rescue. Sandy looked about 10 pounds lighter, but Gonzalez instantly recognized the lines on Sandy’s tongue.
“I was just so excited,” Gonzalez, 54, said. “I felt shaky — very shaky. I couldn’t believe it.”
A San Antonio animal service officer had found Sandy under a tree in a yard, and the dog ended up at the Footbridge Foundation, a rescue about three miles from where Sandy ran away. Wendy Black, the Footbridge Foundation’s founder, said most of the dogs and cats that come to her rescue aren’t microchipped.
AI has helped two of the rescue’s dogs reunite with their owners, Black said. Without AI, Black said, those pets “did not stand a chance” of reconnecting with their families.
Instead, Sandy wagged her tail after hearing Gonzalez call her name on the rescue’s front porch in July — after 33 days apart. Their first stop after leaving the rescue: Starbucks, to get Sandy a celebratory cup of whipped cream.
Five months later in Beavercreek, Ohio, Amé-Leigh Price was distraught when her family’s cat, Lucy, didn’t show up for her salmon-flavored kibble breakfast. Her family had lost — and never found — a few cats when she was growing up.
Price’s daughter Evelin, 7, cried when she found out she couldn’t give Lucy her Christmas gift: a stuffed mouse she bought at her school’s gift shop. Price promised she would do everything she could to find Lucy, who was 7 months old.
Price, 40, planned to tape photos of Lucy to neighborhood light poles. But when a friend told her about Petco Love’s AI, she uploaded a picture of Lucy showing her large green eyes. Within 12 hours, she had a match.
Lucy had hid under the hood of a car in the neighborhood. The next day, the driver drove about two miles to a shopping center and didn’t notice Lucy until meowing noises came from the hood, Petco Love said.
Price reunited with Lucy that day.
“It was our Christmas miracle,” Price said.
Michael Bown also experienced what he called a “miracle” after his American Staffordshire Terrier mix, Millie, slipped out of her collar and escaped during a walk in Manhattan in August 2024. While Bown had microchipped Millie after adopting her the prior month, he said, he had not finished registering.
Bown, 29, visited police and fire stations and scrolled through social media until the early morning. His friend posted a picture of Millie on Petco Love’s AI, showing her brown fur with white spots on her neck and front paws. The picture matched one taken at a veterinary clinic in Paramus, New Jersey, about 17 miles away.
Millie had run about 10 miles before a car struck her. A passerby picked her up and took her to a clinic, where Millie was treated for cuts and an injury to her front left leg that left her in a purple cast decorated with a heart. Bown said he cried when he hugged Millie about 15 hours after losing her.
Alday, the woman from Southern California, also said she was overwhelmed when she reunited with her dog Sweetie.
She drove 33 miles to the animal shelter in Los Angeles, where someone had taken Sweetie. The moment Sweetie saw Alday, she ran to her. Now, Alday said, she keeps her pup closer than ever.
“I got her back in my arms,” Alday said through tears. “And ever since then, my joy’s back in my life.”
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