July 26th, 2019

As some of you may know, I am a dog lover. We have a 15 month old mutt of our own and love her to pieces; she brings much laughter and frustration to our lives. And I would be a total mess if we lost her. That is why she has dog tags and is micro-chipped. 

However, not all owners are like this. So this is my plea to all owners, both cat and dog owners: 
Chip, register, and update!!!
Some back story as to why I am blogging about this: This sweet boy ended up on my front port this afternoon. 

As you can see, he has no collar, and therefore, no tags. So I had no clue where he came from, or who to call to say "hey, I've got your dog." I didn't even know what to call him. Thankfully he was super sweet and just wanted some shade and decided to plop down in my garage. I ended up taking him to our pup's vet and found out that thankfully his owners had micro-chipped him; meet Rocky. Turns out that Rocky lives a few houses down from us. And thankfully, his owners registered his micro-chip and kept the information up-to-date. While I was at the vets waiting to get's Rocky's information one of the techs told me that they had just had a dog in there last week that was chipped, but the owners had never registered the chip, so they had no way to get the dog home. How sad!
Please, be responsible. If you have a dog or cat, please get them chipped; then go register the chip information online.  It's so easy, and most of the time free with the chip. Then keep the information up-to-date; if you move, change phone numbers, anything, update the information! Many of the registration sites have a place for you to put your phone number, a secondary number, your address, the vet's name and number that you take your pet to, and even a place to take your pet if they are found, plus more. It's not hard, I promise, and takes very little time to do and can save you a lot of heart ache in the end.
The other point I want to make in this is: don't leave your pets out in the heat. Just like we don't like to be hot, neither do they. Plus, they are more sensitive to the heat than we are; you've got to remember this: they have a thick coat of fur, we don't! And when you do have your pets outside, make sure they have easy access to fresh water. I can't stress that enough: 1) access to water, and 2) FRESH water. Don't leave water just outside, standing getting stagnant; this invites bacteria that is not good for your dog, and also gives a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which carry diseases like heart worm, ring worm, tape worm that are all bad for dogs, as well as things like Zika, Malaria, and West Nile. None of the above are good things, nor things we want for ourselves or our pets. 

So, to recap: Rocky is safe with a friend of his owners and will be picked up this afternoon when the owner gets home from work. :) Take the time to chip and register your pet, and update his/her/your information for the chip regularly. And don't leave your pets outside in the heat; when they are out, make sure they have plenty of FRESH water. 

​-Jen

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