Originally Posted by
jennj99738
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So, everyone should make sure that the shelter is the first place you visit if your pet gets out--and make sure you go there personally everyday. Do not rely on the staff to be able to tell you if your pet is at the shelter. They're too overworked even though it should be part of their job....
This is excellent advice. I volunteer at our local shelter and while I think they are really trying to do things well , I would NOT want to rely on what they think for being reunited with my lost pet. Go yourself and go often.
Originally Posted by
cepheid
Our two cats are microchipped because we adopted them and the shelter requires all adopted animals to be chipped. Our two dogs will be microchipped within the next couple of weeks because, as of 2 years ago, our city will not issue dog licenses without a chip. The chips used in this area are HomeAgain.
BTW, for those of you using HomeAgain, you can get the first year for free with promotion code HOL07. It still works as of a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, it's not good for renewals...
If anyone knows of a promo for free renewal, please post.
My little ones came microchipped from the shelter, too, and from what the shelter staff told me, the HomeAgain renewals are not strictly necessary. My understanding is that some of the special services will not be available if membership is not maintained, BUT the data on the animal will be retained so they could still be traced if the chip were read at a vet's office or shelter. I'm not sure if address updates would be viable or not. That would be important to know if you moved.
The shelter where I got my cats has itself permanently listed on the chip record as a contact, so that is also a fallback of sorts. In their last newsletter there was a story of a pet that was lost when movers left a door open while packing the truck. Despite searching then and several returns to the area to search, the pet was gone. More than a year later the shelter got a call from a vet with the pet. They took custody of the pet and via google was able to track down the owner who was in a different part of the country by that point, and who promptly and happily reclaimed the pet. If your pet came from a shelter or breeder, it would be good to know if there were such a permanent record for your pet, as that would be another place to contact if the pet were ever lost.