If you do, that’s great, but there are far too many people who don’t. Look at all the postings on Craig’s List, the Lost and Found ads in the newspapers, the strays brought in to Animal Control. It breaks my heart when someone is looking for a lost pet, especially in the middle of winter. So many of these missing pets could have been prevented if they had a more responsible pet owner.

Too many people think it’s okay to just open the front door and let FiFi and Garfield outside to do their ‘own thing’. “It’s cold outside; they won’t go far or stay out for very long”, or my personal ‘favorite’, “I let them go out all the time when they want, they’ve always come back”. If that’s the case then how come so many don’t?

Some folks who assume their pet will come back because hey, Garfield has disappeared before and found his way back home may not realize that maybe this time he found his way to the local pound, or worse under the tires of some vehicle. By the time they figure he is missing longer then normal and decide to start looking for him, it may be too late. If he found his way to Animal Control, he may have already been adopted or even euthanized.

I have had two instances that I can recall, where I was asked to pull a cat from Animal Control because of illness. The cats had been there for over a month - first waiting for their owners to find them, then waiting to be adopted. Not until I pulled them out, got them healthy and put them on our website (they had been posted for months) did their owner’s come forward. It amazes me how they can find them on KKC’s website, but never looked for them on Animal Controls. Depending on their story determined whether or not I allowed them to re-adopt the cats in question.

A friend of mine, who does cat rescue as well, was contacted recently by a woman who said “I saw a picture of one of your cats and I think you have my cat”. Her response, “which cat and how long has it been missing?” “The tortie”and “10 years”. “10 years??? and you just now started looking for it?”. It wasn’t the woman’s cat, but even if it was, this cat had been rescued from an animal control agency on its way to euthanasia after being there for well over two months.

I was reading an article in a cat magazine last week about a family whose 4 year old cat disappeared down in the Lower 48. Six years later they get a call from their local animal shelter that the cat is there. Seems the cat had wandered and took up residence with an elderly woman. When she died, the cat ended up at the pound. On a quirk, they decided to scan the cat before euthanasia, found it to be microchipped and did some checking. You can only imagine this families surprise to get that call and be reunited with their long lost pet. They say the cat seems to remember them and is very happy to be back home.

I cannot stress the importance of collars (and yes they are only good if they are actually on the pet) or some other method of identification. If you are one of those people who take the collar off because of grooming, because my dog/cat is in the house and doesn’t need to wear one, I can’t stand the sound of tags jingling, my cat doesn’t go outside, my dog only goes outside when I am there, then get them microchipped. There are so many unknowns that can happen, so many things we just cannot predict, wouldn’t it be worth it to take the extra precautions if it meant you might get your pet back sooner.

I know accidents happen and sometimes our pets are smarter then we are. I learned that when I was second guessing myself about latching the gate, then I thought someone was letting my dogs out. After they disappeared numerous times, spending hours looking for them, finally finding them, then bailing my dogs out of jail, I started pad-locking my gate (which is great unless your contractor loses his key or Enstar needs to get inside the yard). Only until I started spying on them did I witness they had learned how to unlatch the gate themselves. They never did it in front of me, and I’m sure they had fun…while it lasted. It was only because they have their collars on with ID tags, plus being microchipped, that I got them back so quickly and, thank God, unhurt.