Cailyn Doyle is reunited with Julius, her pet tortoise, which wandered into another yard after digging out of his pen. She is happy the town sent out an alert. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Joe Capozzi
The escapee was on the run, and Ocean Ridge’s finest wasted no time alerting town residents.
“Please be on the lookout for Julius the African Sulcata Tortoise,” read the urgent BOLO on May 16 with a link to a photograph of the turtle.
Three days later, the police issued another BOLO: Bloom, a 10-month-old Sailfish Lane kitten, was on the lam. A month before that, a cat named Lasagna warranted a BOLO after fleeing from its Ocean Boulevard home.
To subscribers of CivicReady, the town’s free notification system that issues emergency and non-emergency alerts via text, email and phone call, it might have seemed like domestic pets were running wild in Ocean Ridge.
But it was all just a Mayberry-esque slice of life in a small coastal town, where first responders treat missing pets with the same respect and urgency given to flooded roads, power outages and other topics the town deems worthy of public attention.
“I was very grateful they were able to do that,’’ said Julius’ owner, Cailyn Doyle, a Hudson Avenue resident who was reunited with her beloved 6-year-old tortoise on May 23.
Julius had dug his way out of his backyard pen on Mother’s Day, sending his 26-year-old owner into a panic. A police officer noticed Doyle posting missing-tortoise flyers on street poles two days later and offered to help by issuing a CivicReady BOLO.
When the turtle was found a week later, by landscapers in a backyard across the street a few doors down, the positive update was shared with CivicReady subscribers: “Please cancel the bolo for Julius, the African Sulcata Tortoise. He has been located and is home safe. Thank you for your assistance.”
Doyle said the flyers and the town’s electronic alert both contributed to Julius’ safe return.
“It extended the dragnet and it made me feel better,’’ she said of the town’s efforts. “Without their help, I wouldn’t have had so many eyes on him. I found it very reassuring that they did that.’’
Julius is one of nine lost-then-found pets — including a parakeet named Blue Budgie but mostly dogs and cats — that have received attention on the town’s CivicReady system since January 2022. That accounts for about 10% of the 194 alerts issued in that period.
But town officials are worried that the six pet alerts since April 13 — the lost-then-found notices for the kitten, the cat and the tortoise — might result in subscriber fatigue.
“My concern is that people get so many text messages these days,” Town Manager Lynne Ladner said. “You get text messages from your doctor’s office, from retailers, from politicians. I don’t want to get to a point where, in a real emergency, people are ignoring important information because they get so inundated with texts.’’
No one has complained about the town’s use of CivicAlert for pets, Ladner said. But she said some changes might be in order.
“We don’t want to be in a situation where the text messages from the town are one more text message that you don’t read. That when it’s truly something urgent, maybe people aren’t paying attention like they should,’’ she said.
The town pays an annual fee of $1,023 for CivicReady, Ladner said. From meeting notices to tropical storm warnings, the alerts go out via three channels — text, email and phone call. Residents can sign up for one, two or all three methods.
Since texting is the go-to communication method these days, Ladner said one solution may be to reserve the texting channel for high-priority emergencies. Non-emergency alerts, such as missing pets and meeting notices, could be restricted to emails and phone calls.
“I want to do a survey of the community,’’ she said. “If residents really don’t have a problem getting all of the information, including the lost pets and all the meeting notices, as texts, then we will stay with it.’’
It’s hard to say whether CivicReady has played a direct role in the return of a missing pet. Police Chief Scott McClure noted that, unlike Julius, many pets simply came home on their own or were found hiding at home.
Ladner said she understands that issuing CivicReady BOLOs for missing pets is “part of the character of” Ocean Ridge.
“I just don’t want to inundate them with things where they become immune to the important messages that we send out,’’ she said.
Doyle said she hopes the town doesn’t change anything.
“Knowing that anybody who was reading the Ocean Ridge texts was potentially looking for (Julius) was very comforting,’’ she said.
“I can’t imagine a pet owner losing a pet. It’s so reassuring to know you have multiple eyes on it. And it’s a great example of what makes a small town so special.’’
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