Tonka, a beloved Jack Russell terrier and member of a Salem family, disappeared on Halloween while his owners were giving out treats and getting their kids into costumes for trick-or-treating.
The devastated parents called the veterinary practice, Animal Control Officer Donald Famico and the Salem police to see if any lost animals had been turned in. Very little sleep was achieved that night. Mom and dad scoured the neighborhood looking for Tonka and contacted everyone they knew to help them find him. They had no idea if Tonka had been lost or stolen. The next morning, their young children were so enraptured with their Halloween candy they did not notice Tonka was missing, and their wise mother got them off to school calmly without distressing them with the bad news. Then she went back about her search.
Unfortunately, one in three pets will be lost during their lifetime. Ten million pets get lost yearly. If they don't have an ID, 90 percent of those lost pets never return home. Indoor cats get out through loose screens and open doors. Only 2 percent of lost cats are returned to their homes. If they have ID, cats are 20 times more likely to be returned home.
Fenced-in dogs dig holes under fences and unlatch gates. Kids and workmen leave gates open, and my dogs have been known to take off for a neighborhood tour when a child left a door or gate open. Just today, we had an appliance delivered. I came home with my dogs after a beach run and found a wide-open gate. Dogs can panic and run away during thunderstorms and fireworks. A hurricane or flood can cause your pet to be lost in the turmoil. We have clients who have caught people reaching into their cars to remove a pet and those who have had pets stolen from their fenced yards.
The No. 1 way you can save yourself a lot of heartache and save your pet's life is to microchip it. Microchips are the size of a grain of rice and are placed with a vaccine-type of syringe between the shoulder blades. They are nontoxic, and most pets don't even flinch while receiving the microchip. The microchips cost less than a dog bed or a grooming. Home Again is a microchip type that is widely available; AVID is another. There is a national microchip database, and virtually every veterinarian, pet rescue organization and animal control officer has a microchip scanner.
The Home Again scanners are universal, meaning they scan every type of pet microchip. You update your information at the database yearly and can upload pictures of your pet, which can be used in email alerts and faxes to all the veterinarians and animal control officers in your region if your pet is lost.
In addition to microchipping, you can have a tag on your pet. If your pet is lost, put fliers around the neighborhood with the pet's picture; your contact information; and a request to open and search basements, sheds, trucks and garages in case a pet has wandered in and inadvertently been locked in.
Luckily, our family had been wise enough to have a microchip placed in Tonka. They received a call from a veterinary hospital in Bridgewater at 11 that morning. A college student had found Tonka during the Halloween celebrations in Salem. He had classes to get to at Bridgewater State the next morning, so he took Tonka with him and slept with him that night in his apartment. He said that the lost dog was very restless all night even though he slept with the dog on the floor. The student had heard about microchips and took his rescued dog to be scanned by the veterinarian the next morning. A happy reunion ensued, and Tonka's kids came home from school to their high-energy companion licking their faces and zooming around the house as if his Halloween adventure had never occurred.
If you want more information about microchips, go to homeagain.com.
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Dr. Elizabeth Bradt is a 1986 graduate of the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and is the owner of All Creatures Veterinary Hospital in Salem. Email your pet questions or experiences you've had with your pet to docliz@creaturehealth.com. Please title your email Vet Connection.
