Microchipping - NYC Stray Traced to Philadelphia Family, Thanks to Microchip - May/June 2006 - Out of the Cage!, the E-Newsletter of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals

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Microchipping

NYC Stray Traced to Philadelphia Family, Thanks to Microchip

Buddy, a.k.a. Mojo, owes his return from New York City to Don and Mildred Noonan, his family in Philadelphia, to a tiny microchip.

When Rawhide Rescue took in Mojo from the Manhattan Animal Care & Control Shelter in early April, all they knew was that he had been picked up as a stray at 31st Street and Broadway, and suffered from a serious upper respiratory infection (URI). Rawhide Rescue's Lisa Hutchens took Mojo into foster care for a week, until a great family with children adopted him. Mojo fit well with the family, and they loved him.

Several weeks later, when Mojo's new family took him to the vet for a check-up, the sweet dog panicked, and became difficult to control. This frightened the family and the vet, so Mojo was returned to Rawhide Rescue.

As luck would have it, the family brought Mojo back to the rescue group at its twice-yearly microchipping clinic, where he would be "chipped" before returning to foster care with the group. When the vet tech scanned Mojo just to make sure he wasn't already microchipped (his original paperwork indicated "scan negative"), lo and behold, a chip number came up on the scanner.

Microchips aren't just for dogs! Dr. Andy Kaplan microchips a cat at a recent microchipping clinic at a Mayor's Alliance/Maddie's Pet Adoption Festival.

Rawhide Rescue called the microchip company and learned that Mojo had been missing since February and his family, who lives in Philadelphia, had been searching for him ever since. Several weeks after Mojo went missing, his family remembered that his adoption paperwork from the Pennsylvania shelter from which they adopted him included a microchip number, and they called and reported him missing.

While no one has any idea how Mojo made it all the way from Philadelphia to the Big Apple, needless to say his family was thrilled when they received the call that their "Buddy" (alas, the name Mojo didn't stick) was safe, and within hours they were reunited with him.

Not long after Buddy's NYC adventure came to an end, Rawhide Rescue received the following message:

Dear Lisa and Ingela and my friends at Rawhide Rescue,

I just wanted to tell you and the folks I met along the path of my latest adventure from Philadelphia to the streets of Manhattan, thanks! They say only cats have nine lives, but don't you believe it. I probably used up several in the last couple months. I mean, I didn't realize Broadway was so far from home!

All those meals and love pats sure were welcome. I really did lose quite a bit of weight along the trip before I was rescued. Food and a bed were ever so welcome. But the pokey, sticky stuff from the vets — now was that really necessary?

Anyway, just wanted to send you a past picture. I was glad to see all my stuff was still at home and the gopher hole is still busy in the back yard. Those guys are a great source of entertainment.

Thanks again!

Boomerang-Mojo-Chico-Buddy-Cloud Noonan

P.S. Don, Mildred and Maria are also very happy Buddy is home!

Buddy's saga is one of many such happy endings in which a microchip was the key ingredient in reuniting a lost pet with his or her family. We encourage everyone to microchip their pets, and be sure to register the chip number with the company that issues the microchip or the AKC Companion Animal Recovery database, or both.

The Mayor's Alliance provides low-cost ($25) microchipping at all of its pet adoption festivals. And when we microchip, we handle all the paperwork for you.

Click here to find out more about microchipping and how it can be your pet's ticket home should he or she become lost.