By Jemma Stephenson
Angel Contreras went to the San Diego Humane Society鈥檚 Gaines Street shelter on Sunday to pick up his elderly poodle after spotting her on the shelter鈥檚 website. Daisy had gone missing two nights earlier after being spooked by Fourth of July fireworks.
Contreras thinks his dog got out when his side gate was left unlocked and his larger dogs pushed it open. All three ran off, but the other two aren鈥檛 afraid of fireworks and came home. His wife spent hours searching for the missing 12-year-old dog Saturday. Daisy ended up in the shelter when a community member found her and dropped her off.
鈥淲e were losing hope. Especially because there鈥檚 coyotes around and she鈥檚 tiny,鈥 Contreras said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been through a lot. Yesterday was tough.鈥
He later cradled the tan dog on his arm and smiled.
As of Sunday morning, 143 stray pets had been taken in at the Humane Society鈥檚 four campuses in the region, with 36 being reclaimed at that point. By 6:30 p.m., the number had jumped to 214, organization spokesperson Nina Thompson said. Thompson said the organization鈥檚 shelters already were at 145% capacity for dogs going into the weekend.
In 2024, there were 314 stray pets taken in at the shelters over July 4-7, with 72 reclaimed. In 2023, there were 323 strays taken in over that four-day period, with 62 reclaimed.
Thompson said shelter workers will call all phone numbers linked to a pet鈥檚 microchip, and if no one answers, they will send an email and mail a letter to the address on record. They also check social media for posts from people missing pets and post photos of pets they have in the shelters on their website at sdhumane.org/services/lost-and-found/.
A photo posted on the site helped Latisia Leos find her nearly 6-month-old husky, Storm. Leos had been barbecuing with friends and had both of her dogs with her behind the San Diego Convention Center watching the popular Big Bay Boom fireworks when Storm went missing.
She thought a friend at the park, who had walked home after his scooter died, had been keeping track of the dog, but when she dropped the scooter at his house she found that no one had been minding the dog.
鈥淪o I was looking everywhere for her, in the middle of the night. I thought, let me look at the Humane Society, because she鈥檚 such a fine-looking dog,鈥 she said Sunday. 鈥淚 thought for sure someone just swooped her up and wanted to keep her, you know?鈥
On Sunday, Leos was back together with Storm and her other dog, Kilo, whom she had brought along for the reunion. Storm licked her owner鈥檚 face before getting her leash tangled up with Kilo鈥檚 and then leaping into Leos鈥 arms.
The owners of Daisy and Storm didn鈥檛 have to pay any fees to reclaim their pets under a special Humane Society offer waiving reclaim fees through Tuesday.