Found

Sunday afternoon we ended up with a lost Black Lab in our backyard. A neighbor had found her and just wasn't sure what to do, so I offered to take her and figure something out. She didn't have a collar on making it SO hard to figure out how to get her back home. We took her to our Emergency Vet office where they were able to scan for a microchip. She had one, but it was registered to the Human Society where she had been adopted out of and they couldn't find any information on the people who had adopted her. The Vet offered to keep her in one of their runs for the night. Which was very nice since she was going to have to hang out in our garage because Dodger is dog aggressive. I called on Tuesday to check and see if they had found her family, but they hadn't and Animal Control had come and taken her.

All week Kenny and I were so bothered by this sweet dog not going home to her family. You could tell she was loved, but we were so confused on why no one had claimed her or was looking for her.

On Thursday morning Kenny saw a Lost Dog poster on our mailbox. It was her!!! They drove down to Animal Control in Kent (about 1 hour away) and picked her up safe and sound.

You ask why am I telling you this random story?! Well...there a couple lessons to learn here if you are a pet owner.

1. Please, make sure your pets have collars and that they wear them at all times. We take our dogs collars off at night and have gotten really lazy about putting them back on during the day. You just never know when something weird will happen and a dog will get lost. Zilly's Dad said they had just given her a bath and put her out in the backyard to play. Their gate had accidentally been left open and off Zilly went. 

2. You MUST update your pets microchip. The microchip is automatically registered to the place that put it in (Human Society, Rescue, Vet, etc). You have to call the microchip's company and have them update it. This may or may not cost you a few dollars. But really, what is the point in a microchip if it can't help your pet get back home.

3. If you move, remember to update the microchip as well. This was a reminder to us that we need to update Sadie and Dodgers information.

It was just heartbreaking to us to not be able to find this dogs family. She appeared to be a loved pet and was just so sweet. No matter how much you love your animals you never know when something may happen. Take a moment today and make sure your pets information is updated so if they ever get lost they can be returned home quickly.