Disillusioned by a police career where her dog-tracking techniques and brilliant search dogs rarely got a chance to shine, Kat Albrecht started training her retired Weimaraner, Rachel, to search for lost animals - with unbelievable results. To the amazement of her colleagues, Kat decided to make her unconventional use of search dogs a full-time career, becoming the only law-enforcement-based pet detective in the United States.
Kathy "Kat" Albrecht is a former police officer, field training officer, police detective, and K9 (police bloodhounds and cadaver dogs) trainer turned pet detective. During her ten-year career as a search dog handler, Kat and her dogs located physical evidence, missing people, and criminals. In 1996, Kat's bloodhound A.J. escaped from his yard and was missing. Kat brought in another search dog that she used to successfully track down A.J. This is what sparked the idea, "Why not train dogs to track lost pets?" In their first four searches, Kat and her search dog Rachel physically located two lost cats and one lost dog. Since 1997, Kat has effectively utilized law enforcement techniques and technologies to recover lost pets and has trained several other search dogs and many human pet detectives.
In 2001 Kat founded Missing Pet Partnership (www.missingpetpartnership.org) a national nonprofit organization that is working to pioneer the concept of community-based lost pet services. In spite of numerous roadblocks and setbacks, Kat has continued to maintain her vision and pursue her dream to develop lost pet services that are affordable and available to pet owners. Kat is the author of the award-winning book "THE LOST PET CHRONICLES: Adventures of a K-9 Cop Turned Pet Detective" which details her quirky transition from police detective to pet detective.
