Job is no laughing matter for Augusta pet detective

AUGUSTA - Carl Washington has seen the movie ``Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,&#39;&#39; and thought it was funny. When he decided to become a pet sleuth seven years ago, his family thought that was funny, too. <br> <br> He said when his told his wife and two sons he was giving up painting houses -- ``They fell out of their chairs. My son laughed me under the table.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> He still hears the jokes about the job, but brushes them aside. <br> <br> The 45-year-old Washington said, ``I go numb when I hear them. I get all the jokes all the time.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The job change became full-time when a neighbor in Virginia was desperate to find his missing cat. Washington, who grew up training tracking dogs, used a dog to find the missing cat. The neighor insisted on paying Washington for a job well done. <br> <br> Now, Washington is hailed by National Pet Detectives, an organization to which he belongs, as one of the best in the nation. <br> <br> Washington moved to south Augusta last month after living in Falls Church, Virginia. <br> <br> In the Washington, D.C. area, Washington chased down about 65 cats a year with a 78 percent find rate in all his cases. <br> <br> When a pet is lost and the owner contacts Washington, he usually tells them to do more thorough searching, post more fliers and wait because many pets come home, before he takes the job. <br> <br> If he is asked to visit a location, he maps it, determining a range within which the pet probably would stay. He said they usually won&#39;t cross rivers, creeks or other such boundaries.