When Fatty the Staffie went missing from her home near Sydney, Australia, in 2001 her distraught owner, John Jahshan, searched everywhere with no luck. Imagine his surprise when he recently received a call from a dog shelter 700 km away to say she’d been found. John had microchipped Fatty as a pup and because he hadn’t moved since then he was easily located.
It had been eight years so John was sceptical at first. But when they were reunited he found it really was Fatty - even though she was a little plumper - and the Staffie recognised him immediately. “Her tail started wagging a million miles an hour,” John says. “And she even answers to her name, although she must have been called something else all this time.”
The grain-sized microchip is painlessly inserted under your pet’s skin by a vet and holds a unique digital number which is stored in a secure national database. This lets authorised users (vets, SPCA, Animal Welfare Society etc) to access your contact information, making it easy for you and your lost pet to be reunited. The SPCA charges R170 to microchip your pet. Your vet or local animal shelter may also be able to do it for you.
DID YOU KNOW?
Most of us know we should not feed chocolate to our pets. Now raisins, grapes, coffee, onions, avocados and products sweetened with xylitol are also on the list of foods dogs should not eat, according to the website vetinfo4dogs.com. They all contain compounds not harmful to humans but potentially toxic - even fatal - to pets, particularly dogs.
