Microchips Are Great, But Make Sure Your Pet Has Tags Too
Hi, your dog is in my car, and if I could just call you that would help both of us out.
If you have pets, chances are you know the importance of micro-chipping your animals. And microchips are great, however if your info isn't updated on them, it's a whole process to figure out your information if someone finds your dog.
The other night I ended up with a Rottweiler in my car. This wouldn't be strange if it weren't for the fact that I don't own a Rottweiler... So let me explain what happened, and what lead me to make this post.
I was driving home and found a loose dog. I noticed there were no people around so I stopped and the dog jumped right into my car (she was so sweet) for a half a second I thought "okay, well you're mine now" haha! But she had a collar on so clearly she had a home. I turned my phone light on to see if she had any tags or info I could get from her collar, and she didn't have any identifying info on her. This is when I learned that microchips are great, but not the most convenient.
I had to take her to a vet. Mind you, this was 9:30 at night, so not a lot of vets are open at that hour. Thankfully Advent Vet on Burkhart is, so I headed that way. When I got there, they were so helpful, and immediately scanned her and she had a chip! So they got the number of her chip, and called the microchip company. That's when we learned the microchip had the information of the facility she was chipped at, but not the owner's information. The problem was, it was almost 10PM and the facility was closed so I couldn't call them to ask for the owner's information. At this point I couldn't keep her overnight, I've got two dogs who are weird about other dogs coming into their home, and it isn't fair to them or this dog to force them together overnight. So I had to call 911 Dispatch who then had to call the on duty Animal Control Officer. It was the end of her shift, but she stayed so I could take the dog there and the dog would at least be safe overnight. I got word the next day, the dog did have a home and her owners picked her up that morning.
While I'm not blaming the owners one bit, I get it, dogs get out sometime, and her tags may have come off. My dog George has somehow managed to get his tags off his collar, twice now. I just wanted to use this situation and remind you tocheck your dog's collar and make sure their tags are there, and updated with your current information. Both of my dogs are microchipped, but I didn't realize how the chip actually worked until I went through this process with the dog I found. I thought my info was just stored on it. Turns out if my dogs were to get out, the chip would actually scan to the rescue we got them from, and then they'd have to search to find our info and it'd be a big mess. This also reminds me that I need to find which microchip services they have and update their subscriptions. But in the mean time, they do have tags with their names and up to date phone numbers for my husband and I.
I'm sure this pups owners were worried sick about her, and your dog getting loose is never something you plan to happen, so I am not blaming her owners one bit. It would have just been easier to check her collar, and give them a call. I know this is something that isn't top of mind all the time, so this situation reminded me that I needed to check my dogs tags, and I figured it may be a good reminder for you too!
On the bright side, I got to hang out with the sweetest big lovable Rottweiler for a couple hours, so it wasn't a bad way to spend my Tuesday at least!