I was out walking my dog this morning, and saw a Miniature Pincher wandering around with no owner in sight. My dog barked at him and scared him off out of sight, so I wasn’t able to get to him. After I dropped my boy off at the groomer, I was putting out the sprinkler and here’s the little Min Pin again. Well, not really little - this dog is obviously rather well fed, and has not been wandering by himself for long - probably a couple of hours, if that. He has a collar but no tags. And no leash, either.
He’s a very friendly guy, and seems intent on following me, so he follows me inside to my condo where I get one of my spare leashes and put it on him. We take a walk around the neighborhood, and I ask a couple of people if they have seen anyone looking for a dog. No luck. We get in my car, where he insists on sitting in the front seat, and drive around the neighborhood for a bit, looking for someone who might be looking for him. No luck.
We drive to the local animal shelter, which is a whole 'nother story - a bunch of people dropping their dogs off because they don’t want them anymore. At least it’s better than abandoning them. But I can’t leave this little guy here - they don’t take strays. I have to take him to the police station instead. So I drive to the other end of town and drop him there. They will keep him for a few hours, then it’s off to the shelter (the same one I went to).
If the owners had put tags on the dog’s collar, they would already have him back, and I wouldn’t have spent the bulk of my morning driving around with someone else’s dog.
So please, if you have a dog, or a cat that goes outside at all, make sure they have tags.
I came home from running some errands yesterday and found my son on the front lawn holding this little Chihuaha(?).
This little guy didn’t have a tag but looked well taken care of. He was incredibly friendly and extremely obedient.
So I call the office of the complex we live in and let the manager know that we found this dog and that he could just hang out in our backyard until we find his owner. I thought he belonged to another tenant.
A few hours pass and there’s a knock at the door. This obviously distraught lady asks me if I have seen her dog and hands me a picture of the little guy who’s sleeping on my back step.
When I replied that he was in my back yard she almost cried.
Despite my protests she insisted that we should get a reward for finding and keeping her purebred, blue ribbon obedience champion named “Bandito.” I told her that my son found him and might deserve a small reward but really, it was just the right thing to do. I wouldn’t have sent him to the shelter but would have checked to see if he was tatooed or chipped. Barring that, he would have been temporarily adopted until his owners were found.
Anyways, the lady returned a few hours later and gave me an envelope and a bag of dog biscuits since our dogs kept Bandito company without beating him up.
My son lost his mind when I told him that there was $50.00 in the envelope.
I know what you mean. It’s so frustrating to see an obviously well-cared for animal running around with no I.D. Plus, I personally never know what to do. Should I trust they’ll find their way home (assuming they weren’t dumped) or pick them up or what?! By the time I’m done trying to make up my mind they’re usually on their way, and then I worry about them for days.
shannybonanny, I wasn’t quite sure what to do, either. Part of the reason I walked around the neighborhood, besides hoping I’d see the owner, was hoping that the dog would find his way home.
Even if the owners aren’t smart enough to tag him, I hope they’re smart enough to call the police and local shelters.
At least this guy was friendly enough that I could get to him and get a leash on him (hell, he let me carry him into the shelter - there were a lot of other dogs around and he was a bit nervous, so I just picket him up). I looked for “Lost Dog” signs and found none.
A while back there was a beatiful Husky running around, but he wouldn’t let me near him. I don’t know what happened to him; I like to think his owners found him, but he may have ended up as road kill.
Tags are good, but often dogs are loose because their collar came off, tags included. Sometimes just the tag comes off. My sister cannot keep a tag on her one cat. She has no idea how the cat gets rid of it, but she’s been through a lot of tags already.
Microchips or tatoos tend to work best, along with a tag. I spent a lot of time at the SPCA when my sisters cat was missing, and saw a lot of animals get scanned for the chip.
lola, you rock! Have any pet you love microchipped or tatooed! Tags are crucial, too, but they’re useless if the critter’s slipped outta the collar. The permanent ID stays with your pet, no matter what.
I had my dog microchipped because twice I caught people trying to steal her–while she was on her tie-out, in a fenced yard. (I was outside too, just out of immediate sight.) She’s gorgeous–black Lab/shephard–but she’s also idiotically friendly. She’s very protective inside the house but outside she assumes anyone paying attention to her just wants to play. Tags can be removed so easily and I wanted a sure way to get her back if needed.
Microchips cost about $20 and they’re almost painless. A narrow needle quickly inserts the chip under the skin. It’s no worse than a routine vaccination shot. The chip number is recorded to the local vet–who has your records–and for dogs, you just file a form with the AKC as well. The dog literally has nationwide protection toward getting back home to you.
Please, please, please chip or tatoo your pets. It’s inexpensive and could make all the difference in keeping them safe–and in your life.
Veb
Whose dog is happily snoozing under the desk, her head on my ankles
Yes! I have done dog foster/rescue, and tend to pick up stray dogs if I can. I will try harder to pick up a dog with collar & tags on than one without. With a tag on, it’s just a simple phone call. Without a tag it’s way difficult! PetsMart has this machine that prints them out while you wait for about $5. I have also seen people who use laundry markers to write the phone # on the collar.
My critters wear tags, and both my dogs are microchipped. That costs $30-40 & is a wonderful idea. Plus…you get a cute yellow tag included!
My dogs have both been tatooed since they were purebred- it was done by the breeder. Our cats, however, have not. Nor do they have tags. Or rather, they do, but they’re all out in the woods somewhere along with a dozen or more collars. I suppose we should get tatoos for them, or chips, but we never really think of it, you know?
That little S-hook clasp that comes with the tag is not the best thing security-wise. I use one of those split rings that come with a key chain. It’s almost impossible for the ring to separate from either the tag or the collar.
I know someone who lost their cat this way. I would suggest the tattoo in the ear approach even for an indoor cat, and of course dogs as mentioned in the OP. This particular cat got free and darted inside the wrong house at some point. The evil occupants, rather knock on a neighbor’s door to ask if anyone recognized the cat, or at the very least shoo the cat back outside to find its way home, drove it to an animal shelter. Since the owner thought that the cat simply went on an adventure (as cats do from time to time), no one thought to call around to shelters until it was a too late. Many shelters in the area have moved to indefinitely holding an animal until it is claimed or adopted, but this particular one only gave a couple of days.
Microships are better for cats than collars. There is a risk with the collar of the cat getting its leg caught in it. In the ensuing struggle to free itself the cat can cause very great harm to itself (cuts and grazes) which can take a long time to heal. I have taken the collar off my cat after seeing some bad cases on TV. Even with elasticated collars there is also a risk of the cat hanging itself on a tree.
A word about tattooing. If you have a valuable/ pure bred/registered dog or cat & someone steals it for some kind of financial gain, tattoos can be removed or masked. Microchips are invisible. If you don’t put the accompanying tag on the collar, there is no way for someone without a scanner to know there is a chip in there. It’s the size of a grain of rice, & its so cheap now, I think eminently worth it.
My dogs have both tags & chips…one is a very beautifully bred Rottweiler, so theft is a concern even though my dogs are indoors & supervised outdoors. My cats have elasticated “quick release” collars & tags & have each had the same ones for 6 years, despite both being in/out cats.
I need to ask my dog’s vet again if he microchips - last time I asked he didn’t. It’s certainly best to have both tags and a chip, and I admit I’m lax on the the chip. My dog is always on leash; he slipped the colllar a couple of times when he was younger, but luckily he is well trained enough that he came back to me when I called him.
My cats are strictly indoor, and they never go out unless they are in a carrier. And they are such scaredy-cats that if anyone else is around, they hide, so there is no danger of them slipping out, and even if they did, I’m in a condo with a secure hallway. Hell, they won’t even go out in the hall with me.
[hijack]Carina, Rotties are great dogs. My friends have 4 rescue Rotties, all sweeties, even though they were all abused or neglected in some manner (two very badly). My boy is a Norwegian Elkhound, and he goes to the Rottweiler Spa (i.e. my friends’ house) whenever I go out of town.[/hijack]
About 2 hours ago, a dog walked into our front door (we’re in the middle of a heat wave, the air doesn’t move and to create a minimal air flow in the house, we leave both the front and back doors opened). It’s a small female dog, no collar (looks like a miniature German shepherd), extremely well behaved and she seems to be pregnant. Now both the front and back door have barriers so that our dogs don’t go off. We haven’t been able to properly introduce them to each other because the stranger is growling at our dogs who just want to be friendly (two 11 years old females). So, we’re a little bit at a lost to what to do. I’ve called a friend who’s a dog person to give a hand. So we’ll see from there. And before anybody asks, keeping her is not really an option, we’re at our limit with our two.
And no leash, either.