When Randi Olson was 10 years old growing up in Britannia, she spotted a little beagle wandering her school parking lot at recess. She recognized the dog “Darcy” from a lost poster taped to a telephone pole and begged the school secretary to let her go help. Instead, she was pulled back into class in tears.
Olson counted down the minutes until 3 o’clock. When the bell rang, she and her brother bolted outside, brought the dog home and called the number on the poster.
“Here I am, so many years later, now running a page to help lost and found animals,” Olson said.
Olson, sometimes affectionately called NANA, after the organisation she created and runs, Neighborhood Animals Needing Assistance, has dedicated her life to help reunite owners with their pets. NANA (the organisation), runs as a Facebook page that serves as a kind of curated bulletin board for lost pets in Sea to Sky.
Olson combs through messages every morning, lunch hour and evening and creates digital posters for anyone with a lost pet, posting them on the Facebook page to its over seven thousand followers.
“I haven’t been on a holiday since 2020,” Olson said. “But that’s my choice.”
NANA is just celebrating its 14th year of operation. Like Darcy the beagle, who ran away from its owners to chase a deer in 1979, many of the pets Olson helps find are lost in difficult circumstances, often deep in the wilderness. However, In the past year alone, NANA helped reunite over one hundred pets with their families.
Of 52 dogs reported found, 50 were returned home. 30 of 38 lost dogs were also reunited with their owners. The group documented 86 dog sightings in total, leading to 37 confirmed reunions.
Olson helped even more cats. Of 108 lost cats reported, 67 were reunited with their families. Another 23 of 26 found cats were returned home. The group also tracked 23 cat sightings, 15 of which led to reunions.
Beyond cats and dogs, the page helped reunite a lost bearded dragon with its owner, while also documenting a found rooster and a deceased hamster.
Fourteen years after launching NANA in 2012, Olson says the mission hasn’t changed, but her pace has.
In the early years, Olson spent hours refreshing the page and responding in real time. Now, as a dog walker and caregiver to her father, she checks in during set windows throughout the day. The work still begins when she wakes up, and she admits it’s “always in the back of my mind,” but she’s learned she can’t be online 24-7.
As more community Facebook pages have emerged, pet owners often cross-post to reach larger audiences, something Olson welcomes. What matters most, she said, is that the animal gets help.
If running NANA has taught her anything, it’s patience. Lost pets mean panicked owners, and over time Olson learned to slow down, gather information calmly and avoid judgment.
“It doesn’t mean they’re bad owners. It happens to the best of us.”
She describes NANA almost as a second personality, calmer and more measured than she might naturally be. Years of experience have also shown her that frightened animals don’t always come when called. Sometimes, waiting is part of the process, even when families want immediate action.
Above all, she says the work has reinforced just how deeply people love their animals.
Despite the time commitment, Olson doesn’t see herself stepping away. The page may slow as more online groups grow, she said, but her passion remains the same.
Even as a little girl, Olson wasn’t thinking about the $50 reward offered for finding Darcy, a small fortune at the time. She doesn’t remember what she bought, what she remembers is bringing the dog home.
“The end goal is an animal getting the help it needs.”
