The case for micro-chipping

I saw this in the on-line Chicago Tribune... what a great story!

A fetching finish for a 2-year mystery
Dog lost in Florida turns up in Illinois

By Charles Sheehan
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 15, 2006


Alice Baines could not find him on the block. She could not find him near the dock. She could not find him here nor there. She could not find him anywhere.

But two years after a hurricane blew down a back-yard fence in Florida and set free a golden retriever named Sam-I-Am, the wayward pooch was found in McHenry County.

In the most unlikely of reunions Thursday night, Sam-I-Am ran across the tiled floor at O'Hare International Airport and rested his head on the arm of owner Baines, who flew to Chicago from her home in Tampa to retrieve him.

"I can't believe it," she said. "This kind of thing doesn't happen."

Veterinarians in McHenry County were stunned as well when they discovered a microchip in the scruff of the dog's neck that placed his home more than 1,200 miles to the southeast.

"I've never seen anything like it," said McHenry County animal control officer Sean Graff.

On Thursday night, Brett Baines, 9, waited in Florida for the return of his canine pal. The boy last saw the dog in 2004 after the hurricane ripped up a fence outside the family's home.

"He is so excited, I have 10 messages on my phone," Baines said. "Each one says, `Have you got him? Have you got him? Have you got him?'"

Just how Sam-I-Am made the journey from Tampa to Johnsburg, a small town on Pistakee Lake in McHenry County, may never be known.

A resident found the 5-year-old dog wandering along Circle Court earlier this week and took him to the McHenry County animal shelter.

Though few animal owners take advantage of relatively cheap microchip technology, veterinarians in McHenry County do a routine scan of all dogs brought to the shelter, said Dr. Edin Mehanovic, the animal control administrator.

McHenry County officials called the veterinarian who had placed the chip in Sam-I-Am when he was a puppy, whose office Baines said she had been calling on and off since the hurricane.

"I just kept checking and yesterday around 5 o'clock, they called and said, `We got a call from Illinois and we have a chip match,'" Baines said. "They said, `It's him, it's got to be him.'"

Baines booked the first flight to what she called "the Land of Oprah."

For all the mileage, it appears that Sam-I-Am is no worse for the wear.

"The dog is in very good shape," Mehanovic said. "I can't see how the dog could walk that far."

Mehanovic and Graff said Sam-I-Am is a poster pup for microchip technology. Implanting a chip costs about $40, Graff said.

"This is a perfect example of what a microchip can do," Graff said. "A dog can lose a collar or someone can take it off, but the microchip never comes off."

Given the cost of last-minute airfare from Florida to Illinois, Mehanovic said the county's $45 claiming fee for stray dogs was waived.

"This has been the longest day," Baines said. "Everyone has been so nice here, and I don't care how Sam got here. I've got what I've come for and now I'm going home.

"Merry Christmas to everybody."

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Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

all the time in another state, or states away.. The chips bring them home!

Aww! What a great story! My two are 'chipped and when I was at the vet's office this week a woman had two Devon Rex kittens (VERY CUTE!) chipped.

I don't have any of my cats 'chipped' and these are the reasons why...

1) there is no standard with microchip readers, a BIG pet peeve of mine.

2) in our area not very many places have several readers to identify the different kinds of chips.

3) in our area ALOT of places don't even scan cats for a microchip!! This is a very sad thing too!

If those things were to change around here, I'd microchip my babies in a heartbeat!

That is a great story!!!!.My Chica is chipped!!!!!Happy Holidays!!!

I have 2 of mine chipped and the other 2 will be chipped soon. If it is one thing I learned from Katrina, it's you better get them chipped! It makes the odds better at getting them back and PROOF that they are YOURS!

It was a surprise for me when the shelter checked the stray cat I brought in for a chip. I guess its something I never thought of for a cat. Sonny has only been outside a few times in his life so it just went over my head that a cat might have one. I think they should check every dog and cat though. Maybe someday there will be a big story about a cat with a microchip and it will open everybody's eyes.

All 19 of mine are chipped, I wouldn't have it otherwise. If anything happened to my house while I was gone, or even while I was here, and some had to escape, I'd be slightly less frantic knowing they were chipped. I know that all the shelters and vets around me check for a microchip, and if their equipment doesn't read those chips, at least I did my very best.

In our state, almost all the vets, with a incoming new adult dog or cat, they will scan for a microchip. When I had Galina chipped, my vet told me the previous week they had a older collie mix come in, that had a chip. The person that had the dog didnt steal her, but did get her from a " no kill shelter" to adopt. Why the shelter didnt check for a chip doesnt make sense to me- but there was a raised eyebrow on my vets face.. ... ...

This story made national television today. It was mentioned during a time-out of the Bears game against Tampa Bay. Unfortunately they didn't have time to say that the way the dog's family was found was through the micro-chip. I didn't even know such a thing existed until my cat's chip was applied as part of the adoption process.

They had a interview with the family ( with the dog) this morning on NBC morning news.