The Search Function...

Can someone please explain to me how to use the search function on this forum? It simply does not work for me. At all. Example: I am looking for discussions regarding children and pets. I typed the words

children pets
into the search bar, and among the first page of results were Market Street Mission Drive, GMO, OMG!, Refugees, Wrestling Club, Guns, and Dorcas Lind. Of the 50+ results returned, FIVE of them had anything to do with pets.
What am I doing wrong? I do not want to be that person who starts a new thread for topics that have been discussed, but I'm also not going to scroll through 20 years of posts. Please help!
TIA!

All topics have been discussed. Several times. DOn't worry about creating a new one.

The search function is a work in progress. But it's likely that when you put in "children pets" (no quotes) it is pulling posts that include the words children or pets or both.

The search currently only works on title and first posts. If you want to search for a phrase use quotes. I'll come up with a workaround with a search that will work on older posts.

ok, here's a interim solution for older posts - you can search through comments/discussions prior to April 15, 2015 here:

http://www.maplewoodonline.com/search/

This will find the thread title and bring you to search results for the discussion on the new system.

On the left side of most pages there's an area called "Forum Categories" Look there's for the "pets & animals" category. Just above that is a category "Parenting"

Use Advanced Search in Google and enter the MOL URL under "site or domain."

Ah HA! Thank you all! Very helpful.