Dear Editor,
A couple of weeks ago, I was called by our city animal control officer, Zachary French, asking if I had a white dog that was missing. I had not realized that our cocker-mix, shelter dog, Holly, had let herself out of our backyard through a gate that I did not get latched and was enjoying the rest of the neighborhood.
Zachary met me at our backyard and put Holly back through the properly latched gate. He and I visited about Holly’s escapade and I learned that even though she had a city tag on her collar, they couldn’t find the information to call us. At that point, they saw that she had a microchip tag on her collar. As soon as they ran the microchipping wand over her shoulder, the information came up on their wand and they were able to call me. This saved Holly a trip to the ACARF shelter and a city fee for me.
The microchipping company that ACARF uses, Petlink, had already sent an e-mail message to me that Holly had been found and included the name of the officer, location and phone number. The next day they followed up with a phone call to make sure that I had made connections with the city to retrieve my dog.
This month, ACARF is offering a $15 microchipping service for pets that can be paid for in December and processed in January. This way they can know how many microchips to order for this community service. This is not an annual fee but a one-time fee for your ownership of the pet. I can say that this service works and am so glad that the city has chosen to participate in the technology to return pets to their owners and their homes.
Ginny Hawk,
Iola, Kan.
