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Peter Glynn's son Max helps him cut the pet cards after printing. (Dan Coyro/Sentinel)

SANTA CRUZ -- A Santa Cruz man is working to help owners find their lost pets, both locally and across the country.

Whether it's a dog who escaped a pet-sitter in Las Vegas, a cat roaming the countryside somewhere in North Carolina or a missing animal here in Santa Cruz County, Peter Glynn has carved out a specialized niche in the direct-mail industry.

Glynn founded www.LostPetCards.com in 2007, after working for two decades in the direct mailing business for another local company. Too often, Glynn said, a distraught customer would phone his then-manager and express disappointment that missing-pet announcements took at least a week to design, produce and mail. A week, when it comes to tracking down a pet, Glynn said, is too long. So Glynn set up his home business, based on a one-day turnaround.

"I knew there was a better way to do this," Glynn said. "I thought I would try it in my own time and my own way."

While it's a labor of love for Glynn -- he said he makes just enough money with Lost Pet Cards to pay for printing, equipment and work expenses -- he takes satisfaction in his business's ability to move quickly and, often, produce tangible results in days, if not hours.

"When the customer is on the phone, we'll pull up a digital map, and we take a look at their neighborhood, together," he said. "Within the hour, customers have received a digital map of the mailing. In two hours, we've gotten

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the postcards designed, which the customer approves. Ninety percent of the time, the postcards arrive in mailboxes the following day."

To date, LostPetCards.com has sent more than 350 lost pet orders to more than 30 states and 300 cities, according to Glynn, taking the form of about a half-million postcards.

Shawna Glynn, who helps with the bookkeeping in addition to home-schooling their two sons, ages 10 and 13, said that when a lost-pet announcement arrives, the entire family gathers around the computer. The boys are invested in the business too, often helping with production, which has taught them job responsibility, she said.

"Throughout the process, we all feel like we get to know the lost animal and it's so fantastic when it's a success story," she said. "And we've had situations where it wasn't a happy ending, but at least the owner has had some closure. We do everything we can to get that mailing out immediately. Time is crucial when you're looking for your pet."

Peter Glynn still remembers his first customers, a Las Vegas family who'd gone on vacation only to find out that the pet-sitter had lost their dog. After the mailing, the dog was discovered, safe, by neighbors within a day, he said.

Last week, Glynn's postcards helped find a missing San Francisco pup. And Glynn's latest pet-card order, produced Thursday, was 1,000 postcards sent to Littleton, Colo.

"It's an old beagle that got out in a pretty rural area," Glynn said. "There are lots of places to get lost there."

While Glynn's aware that direct marketing companies get flak for their use of paper goods, Glynn has tried to make his company as "green" as possible, using 100 percent post-consumer waste recycled card stock, purchased from a local family business. He then walks the mailers to the post office himself.

"We often combine walking our dog with delivering a lost-pet mailing or two," he said.

Lost Pet Cards is now under the umbrella of Glynn's Maverick Mailing, founded in 2008, a data, design, print and direct mailing business.

LOST PET CARDS

WHAT: Help finding lost pets
OWNER: Peter Glynn
FOUNDED: 2007
EMPLOYEES: 1 (with family help)
INFORMATION: www.LostPetCards.com,www.maverickmailing.com or call 234-4663