I know this has nothing to do with Travelling with pets but the benefits of microchipping your pets was made very obvious to my son Andrew today.

He lost (?) his two little dogs when he lived in Uranquinty some 14 months ago and even with adds in the newspapers, notices in shops and on telegraph poles it seemed that they had dropped off the face of the earth.

Andrew received a phone call last Tuesday from the Ranger at Warren in central west NSW.  He told Andrew that he had his dog in the pound.  Of course Andrew said his dog was in the back yard but the Ranger said the dog he had there had a microchip saying he belonged to Andrew.  There was no way that Andrew could go to Warren to collect Mutley and to have him freighted down to The Rock was well out of his wallet range.

To cut a long story short the Ranger arrived at Andrews place at The Rock this morning with Mutley in tow.  Mutley was only a 10month old pup when he went missing and to say the least "ferral" in his behaviour.  He recognised Andrew and went absolutely beserk.  After the initial tears and hugs it was apparent that Mutley had been put to work as he now responded to whistles and hand signals and his "ferral" behaviour was not in evidence.

Andrew, thinking that this was going to cost him big time said to the Ranger, "How much do I owe you?"  whereupon the Ranger produced his camera and said to Andrew the only payment is to allow us to take pictures of you and the dog and your family and to let us use them in our local newspaper.

Seems the Warren district is having a feature at the moment on the importance of microchipping your pets and if ever there was a case of it being worth while then this is it.

How about this bloke - the Ranger I mean - think he could do with a pay rise don't you.

How far is the distance between where the dogs went missing from and where they were found Ma?? Amazing and so true about microchipping. Wonder if the 2nd one will ever be found.

wat a great story ma . my brother live in warren i asked him if he seen the story in the paper ....

Not too sure how far it is but somewhere in the vicinity of 600 - 700 ks I think.

It won't be in the local Warren paper till either next week or the week after I think as they only took the pictures yesterday Lilly

Would be nice to think that the other one will be found but we are not holding our breath as he was much younger than the one that came back, was just a little ball of fluff when he went.

We have our suspicions but of course can't prove anything.  Just seems funny when the people vacate the house next door at the same time the dogs go missing.

They were both Jack Russell Foxie crosses Lilly

They would only come back to you dunmowin if for some reason they had to be taken to the vets and the vet checked the microchip. Very easy for someone to take a microchipped dog and keep it for themselves, just don't ever let the microchip be checked out. You just have to hope nobody decides they want your little dog more than you.

make you wonder why some people take other pets ...it  different if  you find a animal that is lost and keep it after you  had made all attemps to find the owner but if  pet are chiped it so easy usually to find the owner   ... when i find strays after checking to see if they have id tag on  then i ring all local vets then the lost and found on radio station  ... havent had any left over yet  lol

-- Edited by lilly on Monday 13th of September 2010 04:53:29 PM

ive resecued a few dogs in my area, some had tags with numbers and rang them one had nothing so took him to my vet and he had a chip with a number etc and eventuslly wonder if you can change numbers if you have too

you can update all information on the chip as often as you like your vets office can do it or if you have your number there a web site you can do it on .... i had my dog 11years and moved 3 time had updated when she has her reg vet checks