Jimmy goes to the bar

This past week, Jimmy Lab, 834’s chief happiness officer decided to wander off and leave his humans completely panicked. Thanks to the power of social media, he was returned safe and sound several hours later.

When we first noticed he was missing, we set out on foot through our neighborhood to search for him. If you know Jimmy, you know he is an old dog and we just didn’t think he would get very far. Clearly we were wrong.

The very next thing I did was call 834’s digital director and told her what had happened. She proceeded to take the following steps:

1. Social media. The first thing she did was post to her personal FB page and 834’s own page. This resulted in over 83 shares and multiple individual post.
2. Team834. The troops were rallied through Gchat and team 834 sent out emails, phone calls, tweets, Facebook posts and everything in between. 834’s creative director Julie, even hopped in her car at 10:00 p.m. at night and drove through Creston and handed out business cards to every one she saw.
3. Group message. A message was sent out through Facebook messenger to every dog lover and Jimmy lover to spread the message.
4. Craigslist. A post went up on Craigslist, Reddit, online bulletin boards, etc.
5. Facebook groups. There are several other crazy dog people like myself that belong to dog lover and lost/found dog groups on Facebook. Jimmy’s picture was posted all over the interwebs and it was amazing.

Jimmy was soon returned to us, as a couple found him wandering a busy intersection outside a neighborhood bar. Once they got him to their home, their neighbor let them know that she thought he was the dog all over social media. I received a call from this wonderful couple, cried tears of joy and thanked God for the power of social media.

Jimmy’s tag had fallen off and if it wasn’t for everyone spreading his picture and story we might never have gotten him back.

Social media was meant to be used for good and in this case, it returned our Jimmy to us (after he got a Guiness and some Sheperd’s Pie from Graydon’s Crossing).