Our pets are members of our families and we’re members of their packs (flocks, prides, gaggles. . .), and so they need to be considered in our emergency preparedness plans. One super-duper important aspect of such planning is to equip your pets with appropriate identification.
Over the last several years, I’ve helped about a dozen lost dogs to find their home again. Their identification or lack thereof made a world of difference in how much time and effort it took to reunite them with their families. Here are a few examples:
Ruby, a young and beautiful black lab, had a yellow tag indicating that she was microchipped. Yay! This should be easy, just a quick call to the 800. However her owner hadn’t yet registered with the microchip company, so they didn’t have his contact information. Luckily, I could discern most of the telephone digits on her very worn metal id tag. After just two wrong numbers (was that a 6 or an 8 or a 0?) I reached Ruby’s owner, who had the microchip installed in Ruby, but hadn’t yet followed up and registered it. So the microchip and yellow tag were pretty useless that day. Hopefully Ruby’s been registered since then.
Lucy, a big fluffy, friendly mix-breed dog, had a pet-retun program ID tag and was registered. So after a quick call to the 800 number, Lucy and I waited in a neighbor’s fenced front yard (where I had lured her with a bite of roasted chicken from my bag of groceries) for her owner to join us and retrieve Lucy. Now that’s the way it’s supposed to work!
I first saw Sparky, a cute little brown dog, as he was crossing a busy road without a care in the world. He sure didn’t look streetwise, but didn’t get hit. Sparky didn’t have any identification whatsoever. How were we ever going to find his owner? We contacted Animal Control to see if anyone had reported a lost little, brown, old, and deaf dog. And we posted a message on Craig’s list. Hearing nothing that night, Sparky stayed at the Chez Thomas overnight. We planned to post bright Found-Little-Dog signs around the area in the morning, but by then CraigsList had helped us connect with his owner.
Skip and Apollo had no identification at all, one collar and no tag between the pair. Neither had yet been reported to Animal Control. They were lucky that a couple of their neighborhood kids recognized them and pointed out where they lived. I’ve found that kids are a great resource when walking a lost dog. They know all the dogs, kids, bikes, and most of the cats in the neighborhood.
I have half a dozen more similar stories. Some of the dogs had good identification; some didn’t.
Keep in mind that each of the situations I’ve described occurred during non-emergency times. If there had been a significant earthquake or flooding or other emergency event happening, the challenges of connecting the dogs to owners would have been compounded immensely, even for those with appropriate identification. The dog could be scared or injured, his normal routes of travel could be blocked, the normal scents different, communication systems impacted, owners not able to get home, . . .
During emergency situations and in their aftermath, it’s critically important to keep your pets under your control – in the house, in fenced yard, or otherwise secured. Pets that may normally stay right in the yard, can get scared and disoriented when their whole world turns upside down; just like us. And at all times, it is critical that each pet has adequate identification. Here are some good methods:
- Collar with a tag that has current phone numbers (including area code) plus your address (including city and state) engraved. Low-tech as it may be, a collar and readable updated tag is the a-number-1 best thing that you can do. Get a good sturdy tag, steel or heavy plastic are your best bet; they won’t wear easily like aluminum ones can.
- Have a microchip installed in your pets; then be sure to register with the company!
- Order a collar with your phone number, with area code and phone number visible on it.
The bottom line is ID, ID, ID. Also, have lots of digital photos available of your pets. If your pet would get lost, those photos could be very helpful in speeding your reunion.
There’s a lot of information out there about what to do if you lose a pet or if you find one. Key is to stay calm and stay after it. Here are a few places to find more information and/or helpful resources:
Posted by MoreReadyToday 
More Ready Today! 