I feel as if I have written this story a hundred times, but it’s worth writing again:
Please go check your dog’s collar RIGHT NOW and make sure that the numbers on its ID tags are current. And then, think about his microchip – he HAS an implanted identification microchip, doesn’t he? Is it currently registered with a microchip registration company? And if so, does the registry have your current contact information?
A good friend lost her dog last week, and only after he went missing did she realize that his ID tag on his collar has only the number for her landline phone – long since disconnected in favor of a mobile phone. As I walked her through some additional steps she could take to improve the chances that she gets him back, she realized that she needed to update the contact information for his microchip ID AND city dog license. At least now, if he gets picked up or turned into a shelter, she’ll get him back.
It was a tiny bit of comfort that, as her lost dog drama was playing out, our local newspaper was publishing updates about a dog who was turned into the same shelter where she updated her contact information. The dog had gone missing from his “grandpa’s” house in Kansas (grandpa was reportedly dog-sitting the dog while the dog’s family was on vacation). Apparently a transient found the dog, and brought her from there to California, where the transient then (inexplicably) turned the dog into a shelter. Fortunately, the dog had a microchip with CURRENT contact information for the dog’s owner, who lives in Colorado. One of the newspaper articles reported that the owners didn’t have enough money to fly the dog home, and local people chipped in so that the dog, Sara Bella, could be reunited with her family soon.
I hope my friend’s dog finds his way home more easily than this. I know it would help if his tags were current.
