"We took the dog with us on vacation. She ran away from us in New Jersey. Although we found her within a few minutes, I suddenly realized that the way we searched for missing pets was decentralized and unorganized. You placed a flyer on a telephone pole or at the grocery. Whoever found your pet had to walk or drive by and notice your flyer. The probability of success was low. The solution was a centralized community bulletin board for posting missing pets. This was possible with the Internet and you didn't have to limit yourself to the local community. I had experience in Internet programming for the government and non-profit organizations, and decided to use my experience to help families find their missing pets. "

• The purpose of MissingPets.com is to provide a nationwide electronic alert system to find missing pets.
• MissingPets.com is a non-profit 501c3 organization.
• There are 13,000 pets on the web site from around the world.
• Distressed pet owners can post an ad as long as necessary at no cost.
• MissingPets.com can be translated into multiple languages.
• MissingPets.com helped a pet owner from Arkansas find her dog in Brussels, Belgium
• The web site is divided into lost and found dogs, cats, and other pets.
• Pets are listed alphabetically by state and city with a reference number assigned to each pet.
• When a tip comes in regarding a pet, contact information is emailed to both parties to arrange a meeting.

"I promised myself that if I ever owned a company, the organization name would reflect its purpose. The name www.missingpets.com does that. The name was easy to remember and advertise on the radio. Some people have found the site by guessing at the web address, hoping that such a web site existed. MissingPets.com has been featured in magazines, television, and the book '300 Incredible Things for Pet Lovers on the Internet' by Bob Vella and Ken Leebow. The most unusual story was an email I received about a dog found in Belgium with Arkansas dog tags. I found the owner's name and relayed it back to Belgium. The owner was recently transferred to Brussels and lost her dog."

It's a simple business.