For pet owners having a ruff time, CJ Mason has a solution.
The 38-year-old retired police officer and Schenevus native launched Skywatch Drone Search and Recovery, which specializes in lost pet recovery, earlier this year.
Mason, a Sherburne resident, said inspiration for the business came from personal experience.
“It started with my parents losing their dog,” he said. “I looked for their dog for about 30 hours, hiking the woods, and didn’t stop. It was pouring rain, and she was so stressed out that she just kept running. I was like, ‘God, if we just had eyes in the sky, we’d have her; if we had a drone, we’d be able to spot her.’ and my mom was like, ‘Well, our neighbor’s nephew has a drone … and they offered it,’ so I said, ‘Please, get them to come out here.’ We had a general location of where the dog was and, within 30 minutes, we had the dog.”
Mason said Skywatch’s success rate has been high, thanks to widespread support.
“Somebody will call me, and I’ll ask them a couple typical questions — the last sighting of the dog, the general direction of the dog, the breed and a picture of the dog, all that stuff — then I get in contact with my sister, who does all our Facebook,” he said. “She’ll instantly do a post, and we have a good following already, and they’ll share our posts, and it’s helped us out a couple times.
“I can’t (quantify the success rate) but, if there’s an area where the dog is, we’re going to find the dog,” Mason continued. “We just found one last week that had been gone 19 days, and she was over 30 miles away from her house. I’d been out multiple times before and never found her; she kept constantly moving and we were always about 12 hours behind. I needed tips for where she was, and people are really good about that. People love dogs.”
Mason said response to Skywatch has been instant and enthusiastic.
“I was medically retired after an officer-involved shooting, when I was in Lexington, Kentucky,” he said. “I got medically retired in 2016 — I did about 10 years — then I moved back here and started a landscaping business, A & K Lawncare, but this started probably a month and a half ago. It just all of a sudden started, and I didn’t expect it to take off like it has.
“Everybody has given us nothing but positive feedback so far,” Mason continued. “They’re posting that we’re the kindest people they’ve met and thanking us for driving and spending five hours.”
Customers, Mason said, are “your typical pet owners, just a family, usually.” Rates, he said, depend on distance traveled, time and the number of recovery attempts required.
“I wanted to do it donation-based for people … but it wasn’t (sustainable) to travel but, this week, we’re putting in prices,” he said. “I’m not sure what they’re going to be, but likely $300 for three to five hours of search time, and that’s within 50 miles of Sherburne. We’re at about a two hours’ distance right now.”
Mason said, while open to expanding his services, pets will remain the focus.
“My main reason to get into this was for dogs, but if we have the time, I will absolutely do anything else with it,” he said. “Realtors have already been in contact with us, and some fire departments have reached out and I told them, if they needed help, I would. But the dogs and pets and stuff will always take priority.”
Mason said he hopes to continue delivering peace of mind.
“Our goal is just to help reunite as many best friends as we can,” he said. “That sounds kind of corny, but that is the only reason I got into it, because I know the feeling of losing a dog and it’s the absolute worst feeling and it is so stressful. So, to be able to help people really is awesome. I enjoy it, I love it, and I don’t think we’ve had one yet where we’ve found it and the person hasn’t cried, so it really is rewarding.
“When you go looking for a dog and don’t find it, there’s a lot of ups and downs with the emotions,” Mason continued. “But the high is pretty high.”
For more information, call 607-434-0460 or find Skywatch Drone Search and Recovery on Facebook.