About this time last year, I was in middle of the mountains doing a search and rescue mission—for a puppy. As I am occasionally reminded, s*#$% happens. When it does, why not do something about it?

At the the time we adopted Ruby, she was a young puppy recovering from a bad leg break. The search and rescue mission for her began after a day trip in the mountains—she got spooked on the way back to the car and bolted into the woods at dusk.

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

After hours of searching with no luck, we reluctantly contacted the woman who had just adopted us Ruby. We prepared for an emotional storm and reprimanding. However, instead of rage, we received a search party, assembled within minutes of Ruby’s foster-mom posting on Facebook. Word about the missing puppy spread like wildfire and in an hour, we had volunteers who created fliers for us, called local authorities, informed radio stations and canvassed the area.

Not only did Facebook help gather man-power within our individual networks, but we were also able to utilize its affordable advertising. By advertising through Facebook, we were able to target geographic areas (where Ruby ran off), professions (veterinarians who somebody might bring a limping dog to see) and interests (dog lovers)!

To make a long story short, after two days, somebody spotted Ruby. Because of the manpower we had behind our rescue mission, Ruby’s rescuer easily found a number to call and was already educated about how to coax Ruby.

Through this whole fiasco, I realized the great powers of Facebook—it came to my rescue in more ways than I could have ever imagined.

Ruby has been featured twice by Best Friends Animal Society. To read more about Jibe’s special puppy, click here and here – Best Friends Magazine November issue.