My cat had been hit by a car and dragged himself into a crawlspace underneath an abandoned, foreclosed house, down the block in my neighborhood. He was hemorrhaging from internal injuries and unable to answer my calls with a meow, as he normally does. I believe he hid himself under the house in the expectation that he was going to die. This was the first time I had tried to find him using the Locator Lite. It was raining, as it has almost every single day this last April(broke the all-time record for rainiest April, even in Seattle), so I had to put a baggie around the locator unit to keep the water off.
After searching his favorite areas without success, I was about to go in, as the rain was coming down even harder. On a whim, I walked up to the busy street bordering my house to the west, an area where my cat normally doesn't go, and suddenly I recieved a signal, albeit weak, but a definite signal nonetheless. I starting rotating in the spot where I was standing, to get a direction, and then began following it. It pointed me diagonally north, to a location that was 2 houses north and across the street, again, an area where I didn't think my cat ever went, I thought maybe it was a false reading. I followed the signal until I was standing in front of the now abandoned house, calling his name, still no answer. At this point my "NEIGHBOR FROM HELL" came out and announced that my cat had been hit by a car, and promptly LEFT without trying to help me in any way.
I realized he must be dying underneath the house, the crawlspace was completely boarded up. I ran around desperately searching for a way to gain access. I found one in the back underneath the stairs and ran home to grab a flashlight. I shimied into the dank darkness, inside it was pitch black, even with a flashlight I could hardly see anything. Then a few feet in, out of my reach, I saw the flashing red light on his tag, as he lay motionless on the ground. Carefully and gently, I was able to get him out. He was still breathing, and attempeted a weak meow.
I jumped into my car which I had by brought to front of the house and sped to the after-hours emergency vet in my area (Five Corners VCA Hospital) which happens to have vets specially trained in veterinary trauma medicine. They gave him an 80% chance of surviving the night. Thankfully, my kitty made it, and will be enjoying his 8 remaining lives. I'm planning on building an outdoor cat enclosure, so this will never happen again and my Locator Light tags will be given a new homes (such as my cell phone and keys).
The negative commentary on the product made my wonder if I should keep it, as I live in a wet (Seattle) hilly area with a lot of obstructions. According to scaled maps I've looked at, my kitty was around 150 feet away when I picked up his collar signal. Maybe a few people received duds, or they didn't know how to use the product (I practiced using it in my living room before sending my cat out), and it worked when I NEEDED it.
Without it, I would very certainly have lost my cherished pet(who is now expected to make a full recovery)and not even had closure, as I would never even have known what happened to him.