Lost pet recovery

Find the heat, find your pet.

A thermal camera picks out a warm animal against cool ground, even in brush and tall grass. We fly the area where your pet was last seen, check each sighting with the photo camera and guide you to it.

Thermal + photoSensor
Night or dawn, cool groundConditions
Sightings pinned on a mapOutput

Where we search

The ground a search on foot misses.

Thermal image of a dog standing, glowing orange and yellow against cool purple ground
Woods and tree lines
Edges, clearings and leaf-off woods read well from above. Dense evergreens hide heat, so we work their edges.
Fields and tall grass
A dog bedded down in a hayfield is hard to see from the road and plain in thermal.
Yards and neighborhoods
Backyards, hedges and the gaps between houses, covered in minutes instead of door to door.
Creeks, gorges and ravines
Steep or wet ground that is slow or unsafe to walk, searched from the air.
Last-seen spots and feeding stations
We start where your pet was last seen and check any food or scent stations you have set out.

What you get

Every sighting, on the map.

Dated by flight and kept together, ready to download or pass to your team.

  • Sightings pinned on a map

    Each heat sighting marked with its location and time, so you know where to go.

  • Thermal and photo frames

    The thermal frame and the matching photo for each sighting, so you can tell your pet from a deer or a fox.

  • Map of the ground covered

    The area we flew, so the next search on foot or by air starts where this one stopped.

  • Kept in your account

    Maps and frames from every flight stay in your account, ready to share with helpers.

How we fly

Cool ground, quiet approach.

Flown when the ground is cool

Body heat stands out best at night and around dawn, before the sun warms rocks, roofs and pavement. We plan the flight for that window.

We spot, you recover

A scared pet runs from strangers and from a low drone. We stay high, hold the location and guide you in, because your pet comes to you.

Part 107 pilots, insured

An FAA Part 107 certified pilot flies every search, with airspace checked first and the lighting that night flights require.

Questions

Before you book.

Something else? Email support@ithacadrone.com.

Can you guarantee you will find my pet?

No. A thermal search covers a lot of ground quickly and often turns up sightings a search on foot would miss, but nobody can promise a find. If your pet is under a deck, inside a shed or under thick evergreens, the camera cannot see it.

How soon should I ask for a search?

As soon as you can. A lost pet usually stays near where it went missing at first, so the search area is smallest early on. Send the last-seen location and time, and a phone number we can reach you on.

What do you need from me?

Where and when your pet was last seen, a description and a photo, and any sightings since. Tell us whether your pet is shy with strangers, and be ready to come to the spot yourself.

What stops a search?

Rain, fog, high wind and controlled airspace we cannot get cleared for. Warm sunny afternoons are poor for thermal, so we fly at night or near dawn instead.

Will the drone scare my pet?

We fly high enough that most animals do not react, and we do not chase. Once we have a sighting we hold position and guide you to it.

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