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It's a pet owner's nightmare: You are out of town, you've left your pet with a friend. Your pet gets sick or has a life-threatening condition.

Awful for you, but imagine being the caretaker.

MaryEllen Campbell, a lifelong Missoula pet owner and University of Montana professor, found herself in the middle of such a drama.

A few years ago, while taking care of friend's aging horse, it got colic and Campbell had to make the hard decision to put the mare out of her misery, and have a veterinarian humanely euthanize it.

“This experience made it painfully clear what a tremendous responsibility it is to deal with deciding about the care of someone else's pet,” Campbell said.

But good eventually sprang from that haunting experience.

Campbell wrote a December 2004 article for Equus magazine with Daphne Braun about the importance of creating an equine living will.

From the articles, eventually came another idea: A business that provides a service that helps pet owners create an online record of their wishes for the treatment of their pet.

“A year later, I gave a talk about the need for planning pet health care, much like what we humans do with our own health care through our living wills,” Campbell said. “My colleague, David Firth, attended the talk and thought it was a great idea. David, and his friend Paul Gladen, both experts on Internet business, decided we should launch an e-service that would provide peace of mind for busy pet owners who must travel for work or who vacation in places where cell phones are unreliable.

“Our ideas kept evolving. Now, we can offer this service to others.”

Recently, Pet Living Wills made it's debut at www.petlivingwills.com, offering “peace of mind for pet lovers.”

The service is an online registry of a pet's key health-care information, which helps ensure a pet owner's wishes are followed should his or her animal companion fall ill or be injured when in the care of others, and the pet owner cannot be reached, Campbell said.

The Pet Living Wills registry stores the owner's directives concerning their pet's medical care, and provides the pet's veterinarian and other pet care providers with timely information, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“By creating a pet living will, pet owners are able to let their wishes be known to veterinarians, no matter where the owners are or who is in charge of their pets,” Campbell said. “Also, a pet living will allows pet owners to be cool-headed when considering what care is best for their pets and under what specific circumstances.

“Personally, I wouldn't trade anything for the peace of mind that comes from knowing my pets will be cared for appropriately in an emergency,” she said. “We believe that our Pet Living Wills service will provide the same comfort and reassurance for all who use it.”

Reporter Betsy Cohen can be reached at 523-5253 or at bcohen@missoulian.com.

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