ROCKLEDGE, Fla. – For three weeks, Amy Legate has kept a door open for Axle.
Each night, she leaves her patio door slightly ajar and raises the garage door just enough for her missing cat to slip inside if he finds his way home.
“Every morning I wake up thinking that he’s gonna be back. But not yet,” Legate said.
Legate adopted Axle five years ago after finding him hiding in the wheel well of a car, a discovery that inspired his name. Over the years, the tabby became much more than a pet.
“Part of my family is still missing,” she said through tears. “I just miss his personality. He was such a blessing to have.”
Legate searched on her own for more than a week before learning about Paws Angels, a new non-profit using thermal-imaging drones to help locate missing pets.
“We were noticing there was a huge gap in using technology in finding lost pets,” said Leslie Bottesch of Hounds Town Space Coast. “There were absolutely zero companies to refer anybody to.”
The organization works with volunteer drone pilots who use thermal cameras to scan large areas from above. The technology can be especially useful at night and during the critical hours immediately after an animal disappears.
“If you do it immediately, we could do a radius search and detect with the thermal drone even at night,” Bottesch said.
One of the pilots, Chris Carter, understands the fear and uncertainty families experience when a pet goes missing.
“My wife and I lost a pet last year. There’s no Amber Alert. There’s no real organized search party,” Carter said.
That experience inspired Carter to become a certified drone pilot. Now he spends time helping other pet owners search for answers through his new company Space Coast Drone Pet Recovery.
“I decided I wanted to make this a passion project,” he said.
Carter says the searches have already helped reunite several missing pets with their families.
“That’s what got me hooked. That’s the best feeling in the world. It’s like finding a lost child,” he said.
Axel has not yet been found, but Legate says the searches have given her a reason to keep going.
“We didn’t find his remains so I have that as a positive. That’s why I’m just searching every day,” she said.
For the volunteers behind Paws Angels, every search matters because of the place pets hold in their owners’ lives.
“Pets aren’t just pets. They’re family,” Bottesch said.
For Legate, the organization has provided something she feared she was beginning to lose.
“They’re like, a beacon of hope for people that have lost pets,” she said.
Until Axle comes home, Legate says she will continue leaving the door open each night with a bowl of his favorite food waiting for the familiar face she desperately wants to see again.