Celebrating our area's four-legged, feathered and finned friends

By Patience Renzulli

January 17, 2011

Missing Bella

Christie Bell and Lisa Lauck, founders, Missing Bella

When Bella, Lisa Lauck’s Brussels Griffon, was lost, Lisa and pal Christie Bell launched a Facebook page in hopes of helping to find her. Today, the page is the best online spot to reunite lost and found animals with their families. Lisa shares their sweet story!

Tell us about Missing Bella — what it is and where can people access it?
Missing Bella is a Facebook page for lost and found animals hoping to be reunited with their families along with animals in need of homes. It has also become a place of support and a page to share animal-related information. Visit our page anytime!

How did the idea come about?
Missing Bella started out as a Facebook page with information about my missing Brussels Griffon, Bella. She was spooked and and ran off from Christie Bell’s house.  Besides running a newspaper ad, I was trying to find a way to get the information out to people in the mall area and thought Facebook would be perfect. So Christie and I set up the page and starting sharing it with everyone we knew. We were posting sightings and keeping the fans updated, which became invaluable because fans were going out on their own to those areas to look for Bella. 

How can folks use the page?
People are able to post their own information about a lost or found pet. We are also contacted separately about animals in need and will post those. When this happens, we ask for all details and a photo so we can post it on the page ourselves. We also post information about fundraisers in our region for animal rescues/shelters.

Any fun successes? 
Besides all the support I’ve had about Bella, we’ve had several successes. Just during the search for Bella, I would receive calls from people who think they have seen or have her. One in particular took me to Sharpe and the dog was a terrier. She was in bad shape so I took her anyway, tried to find her home, and eventually found her a new home. During a walking search at the mall, we found a litter of kittens under a bush. Only two were still alive and a friend took them home to nurse. They are now in a new home and together. 

A few months after Bella went missing, we received a phone call that three shih tzu breeders needed to be rescued. The breeder wanted $100 per dog. Through the support of our Missing Bella fans, people sent in donations to help pay the $300. It helped so much when we still had vet bills ahead of us and were beside ourselves that people were so willing to help. I fostered all three until good homes were found and receive updates on them, which makes it all worth it. Actually, there are so many stories. I could go on and on.

What do you hope to accomplish with it and how can we all support your success?
Besides helping people find their lost furbabies, we hope to make a dent in reducing the number of animals left in our local shelters that receive no medical care and most likely will be euthanized. Our local McCracken County Humane Society is a kill shelter. In 2008, the shelter took in 3,146 animals.  Only 37 percent were either adopted or reclaimed by their owner, which leaves 63 percent unaccounted.  We hope that people will follow our lead in supporting our local animal rescues and no-kill shelters like Project Hope Humane Society in Metropolis. We held a fundraiser last year called “Howl’Oween in the Park” and all the monies raised were distributed equally to Project Hope, Creatures Great & Small, and Bluegrass Boxer Rescue.  These organizations welcome all kinds of gifts and not just monetary donations, which is also why we do donation drives twice a year.  We have set up a paypal account as people have wanted to donate money to certain projects.   

What’s next for Missing Bella?
Right now both Christie and I are fostering animals and plan to continue doing so.  We are in the process of making Missing Bella a non-profit.  We see a need for a no-kill shelter in Western Kentucky and have made that our next project.