Chipped and Loved

I've mentioned a time or two that I sometimes freak out over certain things.  Anesthesia is one.  When Ray was neutered and again when he had him growth removed, I freaked a little bit over the ghastly thought of what if?  What if the rock he ate this morning causes adverse affects?  What if he doesn't come out of the anesthesia?  What if what if what if!!   Luckily this often works itself out and I can contiue my day in a fairly productive manner. 

Along those lines, though, I panicked for nearly the entire time that Ray-Ray was unprotected.  Not by vaccines, but by a microchip.  Ray came home with me when he was only seven weeks old because by then his litter was weaned and Sparkles was more interested in becoming someone's forever baby than in dealing with her own.  I think that bringing him home that early has left him with some deficient social skills that even his puppy classes couldn't give him but as he grows I still try to expose him to as much as I feel we can successfully handle.  There were times, though, that I found myself wishing I could just leave this little monster in the proverbial pumpkin patch.  This jumping, nipping, leash wrestling little puppy was overwhelming at times but by the same token was the light of my life. 

Anyhow, on our first visit to the vet, I had asked to have him microchipped but was told they prefer to wait until the neuter and do it while he is anesthetized so for the next couple of months I felt like he was unprotected and I was a neurotic mess each time we set foot outside.  The problem now that he is chipped, is that I want to be able to communicate this fact very easily and effectively.  The first question I would ask about a lost or found animal is whether or not it is chipped but I wonder if that is the first thing others would think?  Would most people check?  Would they know how to or where to?  I really wanted to get a tag that would explain that fact.  I liked a tag suggestion I saw ...ummm....was it at Love and a Six Foot Leash? ...about a reward?  I'm not sure but naturally the talk about local shelters being filled with Pit Bull type dogs are abundant.  Unfortunately, around here the shelters are not full of Pit Bull types, if you catch my meaning.  That scares me even more.  I thought a nice tag saying something like "Ray-chipped and loved" might work, but of course I would need my name and number on it.  Maybe my husband's name and number as an alternate.  Ray's name, of course, should go on there so at this point we have a book hanging from his neck.  And we're talking about a dog who is easily stimulated.  By that I mean he doesn't do well with dangly, jingly tags.  I even bought one of those fancy tag clips from Sirius Republic.  He ate it while it was on his collar!  At least that is what I think happened because I found his bent tag on the floor, the connecting ring opened and nothing else.

So what do you do to keep your pooches safe and easily returned if that unspeakable event happened to separate him/her from you?