WHY MICRO-CHIP?                                                  
Losing a pet can be heartbreaking, and an unsuccessful search even more so. Affectionately referred to as "immunizing against homelessness",  the micro-chipping procedure is no more painful than a vaccination,  and carried  out the same way. The  small  chip  (about the size of a grain of rice)  is   inserted painlessly  under the  skin  between the  cat's  shoulder  blades.  Each   chip   carries  a   unique   number   and   this,  along   with details of  the cat,  is  held indefinitely  on  a  national  database. The  microchip  number  can  be read using a scanner; we have four  costing  almost  £200  each  and  all vets have them, it then takes just a phone call to the national register and it will quickly bring  up  the  cat's details.

A few weeks ago a vet asked us if we would take in a cat that had been handed in as a stray. indirectly his microchip helped us to find out more about  him who we now know was named Murphy. The vets could not contact the registered owners; all they could find out was it had treatment in 2001 at another vets for seizures so asked if we could take the cat in. With the cat came the registered details of the owner. The owners name rang a bell so I did a computer search and found we had homed a cat to her in Sept 2000, not Murphy but a female named Nancy.  I asked one of our homing officers to call at the the last registered address which was  miles away from the area in which Murphy was found and we were told  and the  couple had split up a year ago and that Murphy had gone missing a year before the split. We were also given the name of the boyfriend and where they both worked. I phoned the Post Office and was told the owner had now moved to a Sheffield office and to phone them, the number I was given was unobtainable so I rang the Post Office again and was told oh! yes that office was closing down and all the employees are now split all over the country, I then asked if it would be possible to speak with the ex-boyfriend.  Finally I managed to get hold of him and he advised me that the registered owner was now in New Zealand and at the time Murphy went missing she was devastated but thought he must have passed away somewhere in view of his condition. Murphy came into care and had a few fits within a short time, so Virginia took him to our vets who did every test possible to try to see what was actually wrong with him, all the tests drew a blank, so Murphy was treated for epilepsy he is a lovely friendly cat who would just like to be petted at various intervals through the day, he is on medication for life and needs constant love and care and observation through the day. He is big black and handsome and a cat to be proud of. 

A cat was found on a main road in Chesterfield it was taken to our vets where it received medical attention and was found to be blind, although it was micro-chipped they could not trace the owner so they asked us if we would take it in. The telephone number and address were in Kent, I contacted the Cats Protection nearest to the given address and they went to the house and found out that the family have moved out over 3 years ago and no one knew where. The surname was unusual so I logged onto Directory enquiries for the Kent area, no luck, so I then looked in the London area and there were 2 families listed with that surname, I rang them both but no luck, I had of course looked in our local book, I then rang directory enquiries and asked if anyone with that surname was listed as ex-directory, wonderful there were another two families. I explained the position and asked if it were possible for them to ring the families and ask if they had come from Kent and had lost a cat, of course you know the answer. I then decided to ask the local paper if they could put an appeal in. A while later I received a call from one of the office workers, she actually knew a gentleman with that surname through his work with the children of Chernobyl and would ask him to ring me. Yes, it was his cat who had been missing for about a week, a few days before she (now we know her name is Sophie) had disappeared, Sophie had a stroke and the family thought she had gone away to die,  (I did explain that was an old wife’s tale) Sophie was not blind the last time the family had seen her so perhaps she had been involved in some other sort of trauma. She is now back with her family thanks indirectly to the Micro-chip and hopefully she will recover . 

Apparently there are only 8 families in the country with the surname, the owner still works in Essex  but lives in Chesterfield, he advised me that he thought the new vet (who was not our vet) would have automatically informed the micro chip company of his change of address.

Another happy ending.

Then there is the other side, we were told that a cat had been hanging around a garage forecourt for about 4 weeks, Virginia went to  investigate and scanned the cat, she was so excited when she found it had been chipped, on contacting the owner she was told Oh! Lucy went missing a year ago I have 2 more cats now, do I have to have her back? The answer is simple, no you don't have to have Lucy back, we will find a home that deserves her, however, I do not know how anyone could not   be delighted and happy to be reunited with a pet no matter how long ago it had been missing and how many more pets they had adopted since then.

PLEASE REMEMBER IF YOU MOVE HOME IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU INFORM THE MICROCHIP COMPANY SO THEY CAN AMEND THEIR RECORDS.