[DBlain]

ever since that incident with my sister's yorkie Lucy I really get torn up over these missing dog stories. It's been well over a year but this story once again brings it back up and sometimes I still feel mad at my mom over it, yet I know she really was to old to think things through properly. But it taught me so many lessons and changed the way I do things. Many of you have probably read some of my posts on this before, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record knowing that vacations soon will be starting it's worth repeating even if just one person changes what they do.

Regardless of a micro chip a collar is a must even for paper trained inside dogs because these little ones can escape so quickly through just a crack in the door. Not everyone that finds a dog thinks to have it checked for a micro chip and even if they do it delays the process by days. To me a micro chip is more to prevent a dog from being stolen or at least identified if it was. A collar and a tag gets your dog back to you so much quicker. Often when people find a dog without a collar they assume that the owner does not care that much, perhaps even that it might have been abanded, the found dog is anonymous without a tag. A tag with the dogs name and owner's name sort of shouts out hey I belong to someone, I am loved. Often people are tempted when finding a yorkie to keep it, IMHO the lack of a collar makes it easier for them to justify that in their mind

What's on the collar is so important and if your situation changes even for a few days the collar should be updated. My sister's dog was gone for close to a week before they found her, why because the collar had her home number on it, and she was in Cancun not checking messages. On top of that my mom did not want to ruin her vacation by calling her. So even though the person that found the dog called my sister's home phone no one knew and after about a week they were starting to lean towards keeping Lucy. Also the person never even thought to check for a micro chip which if they did would have been given my mom's contact info since my sister did have her listed there as a backup.

So now Lucy's tag has both a cell number and home number, and it gets swapped out for one with my mom's name on it, if she leaves Lucy there for more than a day. I often did not use a collar and for years did not even have a tag for my dogs, but I do now and it includes both number. I also had two other ones made for the people that have taken care of Lola when we have been gone.

I truly believe that a dog is more likely to escape when being watched at someone else home or when the owner goes away, it just seems like most dogs have that instinct to want to find their owner so escape any chance they can, so you need to have "that what if" talk with anyone you leave you dog with. For some reason many people think it is best not to call someone to deliver the news your dog is missing, because they don't want to ruin your vacation or feel that the owner is to far away to do anything. To me that would be the last thing my sister or I would want, so mom knows now that one of the first calls she has to make is to my sister and then me as well. It took her a while to understand this,but had she told me early on, I could have walked her though the caller Id on my sisters phone

With the situation today we did not need it, but we had access to pictures of Kipper if needed, if you are on vacation does the person watching your dog have access to photos and pertinent info. Because if you are a plane ride away you will have to rely on someone else to do the quick leg work for. I am sure there are many other tips but these are the ones that would have gotten my sister's situation resolved in hours instead of days.

in case you were wondering my sister's dog was found because my parents finally were able to post a few flyers, and the man across the street from the person that found the dog told him about the poster. The person that found the dog did not do much at all other than call my sister's house, I think he felt he did his duty. Had I been there I would have gone door to door knocking and checking but once again my folks are in their 80's and have trouble climbing up and down front steps. So think about the age and capabilities of the person you are leaving your dog with in case something bad happens, honestly I would not at this stage have my parents watch Lola for more than about a day.

I am sure there are other good suggestions so please feel free to post them. Oh and I just got a really nice message from my Facebook friend thanking me for taking the step to call her mom, I was hoping she would not think I was some type of Facebook stalker.