Zhang Zhanfei got into the pet detective business after watching a short video about people searching for lost pets a few years ago.

He searched online, found a team that was hiring, and applied. Since then, he and his team have found more than 1,900 lost animals.

Zhang said that when pet owners contact him, it is always with a sense of urgency, because for them, losing a pet is no different from losing a child.

His team charges by the day and clients pay regardless of whether or not the pet is found. "We charge for the work, not the outcome," he said.

Zhang said when he started out there were only a few teams doing similar work, but "now there are hundreds. The competition has gotten intense".

Rapid growth has also brought problems.

The worst are scammers who prey on anxious owners. They promise they'll find the pet with 100 percent certainty, take a big deposit, and then disappear, he observed. "What this job really requires is responsibility," he emphasized.

The cases he handles have also evolved. Cats and dogs require completely different approaches.

"A dog can roam 10 kilometers or more. You have to canvass neighborhoods, check surveillance cameras, put up flyers everywhere," he explained.

"Most of the cats don't go farther than 500 meters but they hide. You have to think like a cat — where would you go if you were terrified?"

Technology has changed the work too. His team now uses drones, thermal imaging cameras, and pipe inspection tools.

"But the most important thing remains patience, observation, and the ability to read traces that others miss," he said.

"A tuft of fur caught on a door, a paw print someone else would step over — those are the clues that tell you where to look," he added.

He said his dedication to the profession has intensified due to his interaction with clients. However, one of his most memorable cases ended badly.

A 24-year-old fitness trainer in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, lost her cat, a 9-year-old companion that had moved with her through various jobs and apartments.

"She lived alone. Only the cat kept her company," Zhang recalled.

He took a train from Shanghai to Liuzhou. Paw prints led to the fifth floor, where he detected a strong smell of blood, bloodstains on the white walls, and cat hair on a windowsill.

The fifth-floor resident living above the pet owner admitted seeing the cat on her window and calling property management to shoo it away. She claimed she had rhinitis and couldn't stand cat hair.

"They hit the cat too hard and killed it. A security guard later admitted throwing away the body," Zhang said.

When the owner learned what had happened, she collapsed.

"She was sobbing, couldn't catch her breath, and looked like she might faint," he said.

To comfort her, Zhang invented a white lie and told her the cat was just badly injured and still alive somewhere. "I knew it wasn't true, but she needed false hope to survive," he said.

A year later, Zhang noticed the woman was still posting about that cat on social media, marking its birthday, and expressing her longing for its return.