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Buster Alert

Veterinary assistant Tracey Hopper holds Flower at Harvard Gentle Care Animal Hospital. Flower, a blind stray, was adopted by the hospital more than a year ago. (Holly Pickett / The Spokesman-Review)
By Melodie Little melodiel@spokesman.com
Veterinary assistant Tracey Hopper holds Flower at Harvard Gentle Care Animal Hospital. Flower, a blind stray, was adopted by the hospital more than a year ago. (Holly Pickett / The Spokesman-Review)

Gina Hardy makes a big deal about Liberty Lake pets.

The city services coordinator organized Liberty Lake’s first pet festival in September and pioneered a system for reuniting lost animals with their owners.

Hardy, who rescues Airedale terriers with her husband, is combining her love of animals with her job.

When a local pet goes AWOL, Hardy sends out what’s known as a “Buster Alert.” She faxes the familiar forms to three local veterinary clinics and to city and county animal shelters.

“It gets people’s attention. They send the fax out and it gets put up on our board,” said Darryl Clark, manager of Harvard Gentle Care Animal Hospital, where many of the city’s strays are taken.

Modeled after the “Amber Alert” system, (which uses a mass notification system to alert law enforcement and citizens when a child is missing) the Buster Alert was designed to save animals from traumatic shelter stays and possible euthanizations.

The alert fits well with Liberty Lake’s unusual animal control system, which relies on city police to pick up strays, and contracts with SpokAnimal for dangerous dogs and other rare calls that officers can’t handle.

Pets picked up by local police are returned to their owners, if they have identification tags. Animals without ID are taken to Harvard Gentle Care Animal Hospital, where they are checked over for contagious diseases, and dogs are vaccinated for kennel cough.

The number of pets boarded at the clinic varies from none to four, and animals are kept for up to five days.

“Most of the time we’re able to get them back to the owners the first day,” Clark said.

When unclaimed strays linger at the clinic, Hardy calls friends and area rescue groups to find new homes for the animals.

Consequently, most city staffers now boast a menagerie of adopted strays. Last year, the staff bottle fed a litter of kittens that the mother abandoned. The babies hung out at City Hall during the day and went home with an employee at night until they were old enough to be placed in homes.

“It has been a pretty good system,” Clark said. “Gina does pretty well. She has a huge heart.”

Harvard did its own rescue work last January, when officers brought in a mangy black-and-white cat that was blind and losing his teeth.

The clinic performed necessary surgeries and then adopted the cat as its second mascot. Flower now lives at the clinic with a three-legged dog named Hobbs.