Meet Kitty. She was hanging around a client’s house for a while, seemed hungry and it was getting colder. Kitty came to us to be checked before being introduced to the other cats in the house.
We scanned her and she had a microchip with a number! That does not happen very often with stray cats. The address registered for her was in North Carolina. Even though that seemed unusual, we called the number and left a message. Kitty went back home with the client and we thought we would give it a couple of days and if no one called back, we would do her exam and get Kitty ready to move into her new house.
Someone called back very quickly. They had moved from North Carolina to Cabot and their cat was missing for 2 months. They lived about 1/2 mile away from where Kitty (actually named Seven) was hanging out. They were thrilled to get their cat back and our client quickly adopted another cat from the shelter. So, 2 cats got a home due the 1 microchip. The story would have ending much differently if there had been no microchip or if the North Carolina number was out of service.
A microchip is put under an animals skin usually at time of spay or neuter but can be done at other times. Then the owner has to register their contact information with a company and if someone finds an animal, they can scan the animal for a microchip and call the owner if there is a chip. It costs around $40 to implant the chip and with some companies, there is a registration fee and with others the registration is included with the price of the microchip. Many shelters place microchips in the animals they adopt. It is very important to keep your address current with the registering company also.
