I’m very excited to tell you about a new program at the Houlton Humane Society animal shelter. We’ve talked about this for years and it’s about to become a reality. The staff is currently in training to do microchipping on all adopted animals.
This is a fantastic program that starts with us and continues with you, a way to identify your pet should Rover or Fluffy accidentally break free of your yard and go wandering. It’s a way to assure that you are just one phone call away from being reunited with your furry family member.
An incredibly tiny device, which is injected just under the skin by a very small needle, the microchipping will allow shelters, not just our shelter but any shelter with a micro-chip reader, and most have them, to identify a stray and reunite them with the owner.
Now, I say it starts with us and continues with you because these devices are only as good as the information you provide. If you move or have a new phone number, you should notify us. Suppose your mother falls in love with one of your pets and you decide to let her adopt him to keep her company in her later years, you should report that change in location so notification is simple and easy if there is ever a need.
The Shelter is going to try to absorb a portion of the cost, but we will be passing along a $5 additional charge in the adoption fee to cover some of the cost. This is a small price to pay to assure that your beloved companion is returned to you as quickly as possible.
Yes, I know, dogs are supposed to wear collars, and those collars are supposed to contain identification, at the very least a current license and rabies tag, but what if that collar is removed? What if Scruffy slips his collar in the back yard and goes visiting around the neighborhood? If you’re like me, your dog, or cat, has never been out of your yard so it’s not like the neighbors will all know who he is. A quick trip to the shelter, scan, phone call, and he’s home. Simple as that.
All of our southern dogs are already microchipped when we get them. It’s time we entered the electronic age and caught up with the rest of the country. Many thanks to shelter director Heather Miller for being willing to take on yet another challenge in her already busy day, and for the remarkable staff who backs her up, day in and day out.
It’s quite the process, when a new pet comes into a shelter, any shelter, to make sure the animal is free of injury and healthy and then in the past it’s been a matter of trying to remember if we’ve ever seen this dog or this cat before. A long tedious search of computer records going back five years might yield some clues but if you get in a stray black cat, there might be 200 black cat adoptions in the computer and making 200 phone calls is time consuming and usually fruitless.
With the microchip, if this cat was adopted from Houlton Humane, or another shelter utilizing this identification method, it’s a quick swipe with the reader and there you have it, owner name, phone, and kitty is being hugged all the way home.
It takes several weeks to go through the training process so the first microchipped pet might not be available for adoption today but it won’t be long!
It amazes me, the amount of rescues that go through the shelter on a daily basis, not only local strays but people who come in with sad stories about loss or relocation, folks who may have just gotten in over their heads and need help, state cases where humane agents have to step in and remove animals for their health and welfare.
We are fortunate to have a caring and loving staff who take on these cases and nurse these animals back to health, work with them when they have issues of trust, and help to match them with just the right family so that never again will any of these animals have to face the same kind of neglect they came from.
On the other side of this sad coin are the thousands of people who help us do our job – you – you all just amaze me. When we have a critter with special medical needs, you are there to help not only financially but you offer moral support and a shoulder to cry on and best of all, you are there to adopt.
Adoption of a shelter pet is so rewarding, I am convinced these animals know that your extraordinary kindness has saved them from a life of misery and they show their appreciation in a thousand ways. My little Scruffy is an example of a dog who loves me so much he turns inside out when I get home, he follows me so close that his nose is right on my leg, he can’t stand it when I leave, and especially when I go away for more than just a day.
Thank you for adopting your shelter pet, and if you haven’t yet, we have dozens to choose from. Without you, we can’t save even one, but with you, we can save thousands.
