i found this through yahoo news this morning




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Just as well he can't say where he's been

By CHRIS SMITH


Published: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 4:20 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 4:05 p.m.
When the phone rang days ago at Melinda Merman and Frank Walburg's home in Santa Rosa, they'd gone more than 13 years without George.

It was June of 1995 when the sturdy, gray, yellow-eyed, personable young cat went missing. To say Melinda and Frank did everything possible to find him doesn't scratch the surface of their efforts.

"I literally traveled from the Healdsburg animal shelter to the Petaluma animal shelter (and all the shelters in between) every two or three days," Melinda said. She wrote and described George to every veterinarian in the phone book.

Nothing, for 13½ years. Then, the recent call.

It was from Northtown Animal Hospital, which Melinda and Frank have used forever. The news: The manager of a mobile home park down Santa Rosa Avenue last week trapped a sickly, scrawny old cat.

Staffers at the county animal shelter scanned him for a microchip, found one and traced it to Northtown, whose staff traced it to Frank and Melinda.

They rushed to George and cried every sort of tear. He'd weighed more than 14 pounds the last time they saw him, now he's barely 6. Frank said they're not sure if George will survive.

But he's back at his family's home off Steele Lane and he's eating pretty well. Frank said that on Monday George jumped at a flicker of light on the wall, like he used to.

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That poor baby and that poor couple! All those lost years.

My Bruna is microchipped. And everytime I walk out the door with her I also make sure she has her collar and ID tags on. (Poor thing, has so many tags on her I'm surprised she can hold her head up, LOL!)

Thanks Flutemaker!
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And I think this site has some very important information about microchips you should read. Most especially that some microchips can't be read by current scanners!
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My vet checked Bruna's chip for me.

how'd i miss this post?

oh well......

some of the problem with missing microchips other than poor quality scanners, are poorly trained people useing the poor quality scanners.
true story from my own experience ;....we had a vet tec scan a dog someone brought in from off the street and didnt find a chip. she was getting ready to put one in and the vet changed the battery in the scanner. i tested it out on the very same dog and not only found his micro chip, but found TWO.
the chips generally go in at the base of the neck,subQ. but they can migrate. when scanning you have to do the whole animal,not just where youd expect the chip to be.some times it can be hard to do that on frightened animals, but it needs to be done.
also,some scanners arent sensitive enough to pick up the chips from more than a couple inches away from the animal.so regardless of the scanner, new or old,regardless of the chip,new or old. you arent going to have much luck without a thorough scan.

btw.....ive got a new puppy. her chip is through 24petwatch. a lot of the people i deal with arent aware that 24petwatch will also register homeagain and avid chips for rehomed animals who were previously chipped

FluteMaker,

this is a very touching story... thanks for posting it.

i think this my first post on neuro tall, although i joined a few weeks ago… i should introduce myself on new member introductions pretty soon… however, you may check my sig bloc as an appetizer…
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i just adopted a 9.5 y.o. F pure bread english springer spaniel on october 30th from the family who wanted to get rid of her… she already had a black tattoo in her black haired ear ! and she is registered with the ckc... since i wanted to have her microchipped and have her microchip registered at the ckc as well, i had no choice but to buy the only one they recommend: a trovan iso… and it is registered also at the eidap in canada.

i also took a few pictures of her (poor quality webcam pics for now!) from all sides… so if she gets lost, i‘ll be able to post them to all shelters, bulletin boards and newspapers around…

i think it would be wise on my part too to print some of them to keep with me, because you never know when your dog can take off far far away and be found by taken to a shelter miles/kms away... or be stolen…

it is after reading this thread, as well as some from other forums on pets only that i also visit that i took my decision to have my dog microchipped…

thanks to you all for discussing this topic... i’m hoping to meet you again on this thread, on our pets forum, and on the other forums we have on neuro talk… as i have a few good reasons to be here…
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and i’m truly glad to have been guided here…
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i hope you all have a great weekend… the last one before christmas
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Hi Lavendula and welcome! Your new baby is just precious. What is her name? I love english springer spaniels. I'd love to see more pictures of her. Thanks for sharing!
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