Woman hailed as a ‘hero’ for the unique way she's found more than 200 lost dogs
People should be doing this everywhere.
Erica Hart finds lost dogs with drones.
A woman in South Yorkshire, England, has had an incredible impact on hundreds of people's lives by using her skills as a drone pilot to find lost dogs. Erica Hart, 40, told the BBC that over the past seven years she has “easily” reunited at least 200 lost dogs with their families.
It all started when she was playing with her new drone near a wooded area and a man told her he'd lost his dog. Hart located the pooch within 15 minutes. "It just went from there basically,” she told the BBC. “It’s like winning the lottery, it's absolutely priceless."
"When I first found that first dog and seeing that expression on his face because he'd been missing nearly four days, it was just a thing that, yeah, I can do something and I can make myself useful and be a pillar to the community and help unite loved ones with their dogs,” she continued.
What’s truly incredible is that she doesn’t charge a penny for her services and rarely accepts any compensation unless the job required her to use a lot of gasoline. Given the fact she locates animals that are priceless to their families, she could easily charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars for her services.
“I go home some days and I've spent £50 ($57) out of my own pocket and I've gone without stuff for myself to put petrol in the car to find a dog,” she told the Daily Mail.
Her success in reuniting lost dogs with their families led her to create HARTSAR, a Facebook community where people can enlist her services to find their lost dogs.
When Hart goes searching for a lost dog it’s like a military exercise. Her drone is equipped with a thermal energy camera that makes a warm-blooded animal easily identifiable among its cooler surroundings. The drone gives her an incredible vantage point that makes it a lot easier to see a dog than by searching on the ground.
From there, she positions people on the ground to intercept the missing pet.
Recently, she helped find Jamie and Leah Hollinshed's black schnauzer Hilda in just 20 minutes after the couple had been trying to locate the dog for hours. Time was of the essence because a storm was on its way.
“What she did is brilliant. She's a hero, a real superhero,” Jamie told the Daily Mail. “We'd had a couple of hours with no sighting but she spotted her in 20 minutes. It just shows how good these drones can be, we were so relieved when she found her.”
Hart’s brilliant technique for finding lost pups has already helped hundreds of people, but her story may save countless more. This new technology should be used by law enforcement and rescue shelters across the world to reunite people with their lost fur babies.
If every town in the world had an Erica Hart with a drone, hardly anyone would lose a pet.
Hart's innovation is incredible, but for her, it’s all about the animals. “When I post it on Facebook and I see the comments I lay in bed with a smile on my face and realize why I do it,” she told the Daily Mail. “I do it for the love of the dogs.”
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An actual beaver dam on the now-thriving Price River
Not just coworkers—family, friends, strangers, kids…
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Anything hobbit-esque can't be wrong. 
But what if you need pain meds AND mascara?!
Imagine how this would affect childcare.
Honestly…where's the lie?
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Urgent dash to the bathroom! 🚪🏃♂️
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There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."