Cop vs. Pet Detective

What My Life Was Like Being BOTH

In 1997, for almost a year, I worked both as a police officer while also moonlighting as a pet detective. Here is a sneak peak of what it was like to be both a villain as a police officer enforcing the law and a hero as a pet rescuer tracking someone’s lost pet. This will be in a future post in my serialized memoir PET TRACKER, but I wanted to share it here with my Substack family. It brought a smile to my face to read this and to remember those crazy days when I was treated differently in my two very different careers.

When I was on patrol as a police officer, I felt cool, composed, and powerful. The high-energy, anything-can-happen nature of police work adrenalized me, even when the tasks were routine. I loved the fast-paced atmosphere and the times when I sped from emergency to emergency on the night shift, feeling like the world was on my shoulders. I thrived on the symphony of sirens, squealing tires, and the high-pitched voices that filled the police radio during a car chase. It felt good to give traffic tickets to reckless drivers who deserved them, and I felt immense satisfaction—okay, perhaps just a latent dose of revenge—when I issued a $175 citation to a rude driver who had just called me an offensive name. It was good to be a cop.

Me (Kat) and bloodhound Chase on patrol at UCSC PD (1996) (photo credit Ofc. Ava Snyder, UCSC PD)

But it was an entirely different thing to be a pet detective. Instead of pursuing people who wanted nothing to do with my “services” (everyone from drivers exceeding the speed limit to burglars and participants in barroom brawls), I was responding to pet owners who needed and actually appreciated my help. When I gave a traffic ticket, I was likely to get a curse in response. When I tracked a lost pet, I was met with genuine gratitude. When I made an arrest, I was often despised. When I found a lost pet, I was highly praised.

Me (Kat) with search dog Rachel posing for newspaper article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper in 1997 (photo credit Shmuel Thaler)

As a cop, I felt a little like Dirty Harriet.

But when I responded to pet detective cases, I felt like Mother Teresa with a bloodhound!

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