Most pet owners have gone at least once in their lifetime through the pain and suffering of losing their beloved animals. Of course, they can always use collars and harnesses, but that would most certainly affect the animals' freedom. And that's the reason why a Swedish company called Petlink has launched in the first half of 2007 a device that will allow pets to roam free while their owners keep a remote eye on them via GPS.



Also dubbed as Petlink, the device uses the Global Positioning System in order to trace the animal's every movement and works in a very simple manner. Whenever the pet owner wants to find out the whereabouts of their lost pet, they make an inquiry on the company's servers, either via their PC or directly from the mobile phone. The company's GPS tracking system then locates the lost pet, and sends back its coordinates to the owner via MMS or SMS in the form of a street address.



The device is quite small, measuring just around 58 x 40 x 17 mm and weighing around 50 grams. Thus, it can be installed right on the pet's collar, and it even comes with a special velcro tape, so that the “installation” process will be extremely fast and easy. Moreover, it is manufactured out of a very tough ABS material, so it won't be damaged even if the animal happens to consider it a toy and chews on it, and its also waterproof, which means that users don't have to remove it when giving their pets a bath.



The Petlink GPS tracking device is powered by a built-in 3,7 volts, 700 mAh Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery that can provide a functioning life of up to 4 years, which means that the pet owner won't have to always  be concerned about changing the battery.



The Petlink is available for around 350 US dollars, the price of an yearly subscription to the company's services being of just around 14 US dollars per month.