We have all three of our dogs micro-chipped. We think it is important. If for any reason they should become separated from us, at least they have a chance of finding their ways home. The story of Daisy was an up close demonstration for me.
A few years ago we were at our cabin. Storm was still a pup at just under a year old. It was a warm night so we had the windows open. We heard a commotion on our front porch. Storm being Storm was on full alert and barking. There are no streetlights so we couldn’t really see what it was. Could it be a bear? We are in the forest so it could be, right? Finally we turned on the outside light and it wasn’t a bear or any other forest creature. It was a dog. Was it Cujo? In the dark it could have been.
Around our cabin a lot of people run hounds. Once in a while one gets away from the pack. They always seem to bee-line to our place. Probably because of our the dogs. Usually the hounds are wearing GPS collars so they are not “lost” long. We couldn’t quite see if this dog had a collar, but in the middle of the night we were hoping it would just move on. We weren’t really in a position to take it in especially since we had a puppy and an intact male.
The dog did not leave. It curled up and slept in front of the door…all night. In the morning it left the porch but stayed in the area around our cabin just watching us. We spoke to a neighbor and found out that the dog had been hanging around for a couple of weeks, but no one could catch her (at daylight we could see it was a female). Now that they mentioned it, we had seen her a week earlier hanging by the side of the road as we were leaving. According to our neighbor the dog was getting thinner and more exhausted every day. There are coyotes in the area so who knows how long she would last. We could not keep her and we were leaving that afternoon. I did not want to take her out of the area just in case someone was looking for her. What to do? The neighbor told us that if we could catch her, he would take her to a local no-kill shelter so at least she would be safe.
Well OK, a challenge. 🙂 I decided to use Storm as a sort of bait. We went out and sat on our porch. Just Storm and I. The dog was curious about Storm (who was not barking for once…lol). Eventually the dog came close enough for me to slip a lead around her head. I put her in a crate and gave her water and a bit of kibble. She was exhausted and extremely thin, but she was friendly and you could tell she was well-bred.
We turned her over to our neighbor with the understanding that they would have her scanned to see if she was chipped. Well they did not do that (and this is the part of the story that still bothers me). They had planned to keep her in their garage overnight until they could contact the shelter in the morning. Well the dog never spent a night in the garage because they moved her right into their house. She also never made it to the shelter. One of their friends came over and saw the dog and fell in love with her. He was an experienced hound owner so he took her home and named her Daisy. The dog slept in the guy’s bed, and did hound things like tracking and hunting. From stray to house dog and hunting companion. A happy ending. Not quite.
About a year passed. Daisy’s new human had her in town and a woman spotted the dog. Daisy’s owner and the woman started to talk. The woman thought she looked very much like a puppy that was stolen, along with another pup, from her yard a couple of years earlier. The woman happened to be a Bloodhound breeder and she had her pups chipped. She asked whether Daisy’s owner would allow Daisy to be scanned. No problem. Sure enough, “Daisy” was her dog. The woman was quite relieved because she finally knew what happened to one of the dogs stolen from her yard and that she had a happy home. The man had never had Daisy “fixed” (don’t ask, it is a rural area and good hunting hounds are prized). I do not know all of the details, but they worked out a deal that if the woman could pick the stud, they would breed Daisy and she would keep a pup for herself. Daisy would remain with the guy. Unfortunately our neighbor moved away so we don’t get further updates on Daisy, but the last I heard she was living the life.
It didn’t happen as quickly as I had hoped, but the chip eventually did its job.
WOW! That’s a good story. I like that it ended well, but like you I expect more from someone when they tell me they will do something. See, if you want something done right…..LOL
My SIL’s aunt and uncle had a cat stolen from them, despite records from their vet and much money spent in court, they never got their cat back.
Chips are a good thing but people need to have the pet scanned. Some of the smaller rescues and shelters don’t have a scanner, so unless there is someone in the area….it could take a while, just like in Daisy’s case.
I believe a chip or a tattoo would have settled the issue for your SIL’s aunt and uncle. This is very small town but obviously the vet had a scanner. IMO if rescues don’t have scanners, it is quite simple to make a deal with a local vet that has one. Most vets will scan no charge. Even if the scanner won’t read the type of chip, it will usually indicate there is one.
A dog wandered up on my friend’s property. They hung signs everywhere for weeks. No takers. Three years later, they had the dog at the vet, and someone scanned for a chip (this was in the very early days of microchipping, which explained why they didn’t scan originally). She had an owner, and it was a fairly near neighbor.
I do know in Daisy’s case the rescue did put a page about her being a lost dog looking for her owner for about 2 weeks, but the real owner never saw it. I guess signs and internet ads are great, but if you don’t see them…
It’s such a simple thing to do isn’t it. All dogs here are supposed to be registered, and all dogs are supposed to be chipped too. Unfortunately not all owners bother to register their dog though.
There is no requirement that a dog be registered or chipped here. I am not sure I would want it to be a requirement, but I do encourage chipping for sure and registration of purebred dogs.
Not the best start but at least she was kept safe, which ultimately is what really matters.
Here chipping is mandatory, no dog vet would even touch (vaccinate) your dog if it’s not chipped or at least in process of being chipped since all vaccines must be register under the chip number. Whilst it helps to locate a missing/lost dog it doesn’t keep people from abandoning their dogs, some cruel people remove or try to remove the chip so the police can’t track them and fine them.
Interesting that vaccines are tracked that way. I suppose a tattoo wouldn’t be any better because those can be removed too.
That’s a wonderful story and a very happy ending for all. It disgusts me that people will steal dogs like that – I hope the other stolen pup had as good a life as Daisy.
We saw a security video on the news last night of a $3800 French bulldog puppy that was stolen from a pet store. The man used fake ID and a stolen credit card to make the “purchase”. I hope they find this guy and that, at the VERY least, he’s treating that puppy well. The last stolen pure-bred dog story was of a guy, also caught on video, who snatched a small poodle from a 5 year old’s arms at a park with her mom nearby. The police did find him – he’d stolen the puppy for his young daughter because he couldn’t afford to buy the dog for her. In my opinion, if he couldn’t afford to buy even a rescue or shelter dog, then he can’t afford to maintain a dog. Unbelievable.
Wow those are stories are something. The one about the poodle being snatched from a 5 year old is particularly troubling.
This is sort of a happy story. I’m glad Daisy has a wonderful home, but I can’t believe those people would just keep her and not check for a chip or tattoo! I guess it all worked out in the end thank goodness! all of our dogs have been chipped. I agree that it is so important!
The thing that bothered me is that I asked them to make sure to check it. But in their defense, I bet in that area there is not one in ten dogs chipped.
What a fantastic ending, even if it did take ages before the chip was read. You are so very right, micro chipping is critical. You just never know what might happen. Thanks for a great post.
I always worry if we were to get into a car wreck or there was a tornado and the dogs got loose, how would they know they were ours. Of course the likelihood of a tornado is pretty slim I suppose. 😆
Happy ending, sorta is right. I am glad Daisy has been well cared for. MOM is a big believer in chips and so am I.
Blessings,
Goose
So are we Goose.
Wow! much as I fall in love with a dog I find wandering, I would still make an attempt to find the owner – especially getting the chip scanned! The idea that even a dog with a chip could still so thoroughly (for years) disappear, even once it was rescued, is terrible. I’m glad Daisy got her happy ending, and that the breeder did too, in the long run, but not really impressed with your old neighbours and their friend. Gwynn gets too many of the “is he for sale?” kinds of compliments – makes me paranoid that he could become a Daisy (or Duke, I guess 😛 ) if he ever got lost.
Haha I like the Daisy Duke reference. As I said in another reply, I bet there are not one in ten dogs chipped in that area, but sill I did ask that they try…
Firmly believe in chipping, I had all the pups in my litter chipped and pre-registered so all the new owners had to do was send in their information, (which I hope they did).
I’m glad things worked out for Daisy in the end and sounds like she could not have gotten a better home. Good story!!
I do think chipping is important. However, there are so many kinds available and at different prices and offering different products, I am glad Cindy and Gary let us decide whether we wanted a chip and which type.
I used Home Again on mine. It seemed to have the best overall ratings and more universal.
Our vet quit using that registry due to the requirement of an annual fee. We used Petlink. But it is my understanding that all registries share info these days.
Ah yes they did start doing that but I think all of them will eventually start doing that one day, how else can they continue to keep up with the overhead. It is my understanding that Avid does not participate with other registries that’s why I didn’t go with that one. However they may now, things change so quickly.
Hey I took another look at Home Agains annual fee, you are not required to pay this it is for the extras such as proactive outreach to local Pet Rescuer volunteers, medical insurance for lost pets, travel assistance for found pets, the 24/7 medical hotline, etc. Once registered with them it is the same as the other registries you are registered for life even if you choose not to pay the annual fee.
Right I wrote that wrong…lol. They wanted a one time registry fee and not a registry that would bother their customers with additional membership fees/services. I think they may have had a bad experience with it.
I’m glad Daisy’s story had a happy ending! It could have been worse even though it could have also been better 🙂 At least nothing really bad happened to her but I agree, it is so very important to microchip your pets.
We are not quite sure what happened during the time that she was stolen and we found her. I think it was about a year in time. I suspect that someone had her and dumped her.
That is quite a story! Sure glad it had a happy ending!
Lovies, Miss Mindy
So am I Miss Mindy. 🙂
Elka was chipped at the breeder the day we picked her out.
As your story proves, though, no scan done, no owner found. That’s kind of weird to me, that people would be like “I found a dog. Mine now!” I would definitely try to find the owner if I found a dog somewhere, or if I was in your situation, I would certainly hope that the people I left the dog with would follow through.
In their defense, I think there was a period of time between when the dog was stolen and when we found her (maybe a year). They did put an ad up on rescue, but I think the previous owner had given up. But as you say, if only they had scanned…
Wow. I am glad Daisy found her way home. We have Finn chipped, but we sometimes wonder if whoever “found” her would juts keep her too.
You never know. I would hope not.
Thanks for sharing this. It’s amazing that the lady recognized Daisy.
I thought so too. But she was a unique color. In fact when we found her we thought she might have been a red bone coon hound rather than a blood hound, (but her head was wrong for a coon hound).
Chipping is SO important. My biggest fear is that someone takes one of my dogs and I never find them again – at least with chipping you have a chance. I hope Daisy is a loved up pup, that must have been traumatic for her when it first happened.
You are right, chipping is very important, sadly (like your neighbour) not everyone checks it and the vets don’t check dogs as a routine either. It says a lot about dog/human bonding though, the lady recognising Daisy. We think our mum would recognise us anywhere too 🙂
I bet your mum would recognize you too.
What a story! Could you imagine if she had wanted her back? I wonder if they DID get stolen, or it they only got loose in the woods and got lost…. weird. Meadow wasn’t chipped, (she is now), so no one is positive where she came from either. I often worry someone will come looking for her and demand her back. 🙁
In my experience breeders are content to let their dogs go off to good homes and they seem to find real satisfaction in it. I think that may have been why she let the guy keep her. I think without a chip, tattoo or tags a former owner would have a tough time getting a dog back.
That is an amazing story, yet annoying since your neighbors’ never scanned her! Our rule of thumb at the vet is to always scan a dog that is new to our clinic. You never know! Sadly, most pets are still not microchipped.
I think scanning is a really good policy. Good for your clinic.
Thank you for giving me something new to think about in your last comment–that a scanner will know if there is a microchip even if it can’t read the data.
In my research it appears there are a number of different scanning systems. I’ve been waiting to have Honey microchipped until we see more uniformity in the coding (it’s already happening) and until we know where in the world we’re liking to end up traveling.
But even getting a reading that a chip exists may be enough to get someone who has your dog looking for you.
That is my understanding, that the scanner will indicate a chip even if it can’t get the number. I also think chips are becoming more standard with the differences being in how they package it up. For example you can purchase extra services and such. Both Thunder and Storm have had their chips read at different vets over the years.
What a great story – I shared it on my blog, so I hope you don’t mind. It’s something everyone should read.
RMM
Thanks for re-blogging. I don’t mind at all and am happy you found my post worthy.