‘They’re my kids’: pet theft, pet detectives and the rise of the ‘multispecies family’

Suzie Meakins walks her pet chihuahuas, who were stolen while she was on holiday. She used pet detective Anne-Marie Curry to successfully reunite her with her dogs. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

Suzie Meakins was in Adelaide last Christmas when she received a troubling text from her housemate back in Medowie in the Hunter region of New South Wales.

“She took the dogs,” it read. “I can’t reach her. She won’t return them.”