SPOKANE -- The movie Ace Ventura: Pet Detective launched Jim Carey into super stardom and now a group Spokane girls are hoping to launch their own careers as pet detectives.

Ruby, Spencer, Bailey, Ivy and Delaney created Pet Patrol as a way to feed their need to help and rescue lost animals.

The Sheridan Elementary School students hop on their bikes and take to the streets of the lower South Hill every day after school with their Animal Patrol notebook in hand.

“We have an [Animal Patrol] log and we have muffin, which is a cat we found, we named her muffin... she had a purple collar on, she was about three-years-old, she was kind of tan and blue like a Russian Blue,” Spencer said.

Muffin was given that name, the girls say, because she looked like a blueberry muffin – just one of their clever gumshoe tricks.

“In the past six, seven, eight months we've actually had 12 successes so I'm definitely not going to let this go,” Ivy said.

The girls have strict rules and roles, with Spencer and Ivy leading the group. They don't pick up stressed, sick or bleeding animals and always make sure the cat or dog's comfort comes first.

“It's really our love for animals and our friendship has just kept us together though the past months,” Spencer said.

Some may see this as a passing phase, but the girls insist that this is their job and plan to become professional animal rescuers one day.

“I have been planning on becoming an animal rescuer since I was little,” 11-year-old Spencer said. “This could become the next ASPCA thing, I mean, nothing's impossible.”

Nothing is impossible, which is why the Pet Patrol plans to have a few garage sales and car washes to raise money for a shelter. They want to take their detective business to the next level and actually house cats and dogs that are homeless.

On this cold Wednesday afternoon the girls tracked a black cat, who evaded their attempts to save him. He ran off to chase a squirrel, but that didn't deter the pet detectives.

“We stop we get off our bikes we go look at the cat and try to get it, but it was a very skittish cat,” Spencer said with a shrug.

After that it was back on their bikes and off to the next case.

If you need the girl's help you can email them at animalpatrolkids@gmail.com