I am crying
 

I just saw your video and am sitting here crying. I LOVE happy endings!!

Be sure to let us know after he sees the vet tomorrow. I don't know HOW he survived without God's help! God IS good!

What a wonderful Thanksgiving your family will have!

I am sooooooo happy for you!!

Louise and Zachary

Missed this....I am glad he is healthy and wasn't injured while on his "journey". THANK GOD!

Louise

I have looked into microchipping many times over the years here and even the websites of the microchip manufacturers only list a couple places with scanners, which made me wonder if it would be effective here at all...and what the best ID methods might be for my fur babies.

When two Boxers appeared in my kitchen on a holiday weekend in the late '90's, we found out they were microchipped when we called the phone number on the ID tags on their collars. Because the number was a South Florida phone number, we thought they got lost from a vacationer/traveler, and expected a voice message machine to answer...hoping the vacationer was checking messages remotely...and left a message to that effect.

What actually happened was the owner we called had sold the dogs to a neighbor several streets away that we didn't know and he called the dog sitter after we called him. The current microchip registered owners were on an ocean cruise when the dogs tunneled under the fence to visit us but the dog sitter had put the old collars on the dogs...not their new collars...which did not have ID tags...and that gave us a way to get them home again.

Microchipping and scanners were common where the original owner lived, but we would never have known they were chipped or where to have them scanned. The original owner had them chipped because of where he lived, but he also had physical ID tag collars, which went with the dogs when he sold them.

Not to say anything bad about microchipping because it has its place and effectiveness...especially to prove ownership for a stolen pet...a huge worry, but, in the Boxers' case, as well as in Bengi's case, the phone number collar was sufficient, could be read by anyone any time, and microchip would not have been better. Makes a serious case for multiple identification methods, especially if you travel into an area where you don't really know what sources of identification might be available if your fur baby gets lost.

Whatever we do should be designed so we get our babies back if anything goes wrong...and you actually did a perfect thing in Bengi's case with the cell phone number on his collar. I am so happy he found his way back to you and I so hope nothing ever goes wrong again! :p:D

I microchip as it gives me one more extra chance to maybe get my Tibbe back. As the odds can be daunting of getting a truly lost dog back - and not just one that runs down the block for a while - I figure every extra chance is more than worth it. Hey, if it's just 1%, that' better odds than I had w/out it.

Oh for sure...for sure! :D I was just marveling at the fact that in two cases, the miracle was that the ID method used was perfect for the actual situation. What are the odds of that? :p

Probably not that good! It's one of life's better moments hearing a lost dog is home!

So true, microchipping only works if a lost dog is actually scanned. I've thought of this and although both of mine are chipped, I also have my phone number on their tags.

Unless you have the chip ID collar/harness tag with the phone number to call the chip company on the tag. The finder calls the company, reads the chip# off the back of the ID tag and the chip company contacts the owner or backup contacts, if the owner can't be reached.

I like the AKC service. Pet Recovery Services
You get a tag with a number to call if found. You give them all your information and back up information. It is a one time fee. I vote chip, tag and if they were big enough I would also use that collar GPS service. Anything and everything.

I am so glad that Bengi survived his ordeal. There is something poetic about his ending up at Disney :)

I am so very glad Bengi is home. Sending up prayers of Thanksgiving, that our prayers were answered.

The first name tag i made for him had our home phone number; but when we took him with us for a beach vacation i realized that if he would get lost, it would be a problem to be notificated, so i made a new one with the cellphone :)

When Bengi got lost the hotel people were asking me if he had that "tracking chip". And I was like, no, he is not chipped, but even if he was, you can't "track" him, it only works if you scan the dog.
Then when I went back to Orlando to seach for Bengi, I met this lieutenant from the sheriff department who tried to help in the search during the first 48 hours he was lost and he told me his dogs had this chip that you can track. He said this is an expensive chip and the dog has to be put under to be inserted in the dog. He said the chip emits a low signal, it doesn't work over long distances, but since he has a big property where the dogs run around, that way he knows where they are.
Then also the lady that when to check on that yorkie that wasn't neutered, told me she had a beagle that was stolen and that they were able to track who had him because of the chip and they went to that house to get it.
I never heard of such chips. Maybe that low signal one exists. I searched on google and found nothing.

Did Disney say how they caught Bengi?
Did he finally walk up to someone and they were able
to pick him up?

Tears of joy as I read your post and saw the video tonight. What a miracle! So very happy for the entire family. Disney...you rock!

No Linda, we don't know that. Now that we are back to normal and more relaxed from all the back and forth and the craziness, I'm going to try to find out. Tomorrow I'm going to try to call the lady from Animal Kingdom who took care of Bengi and see if she can tell me who actually caught him so I can thank him/her. I know he was caught around the Team Disney building, but that's all I know and I can't seem to find a directory for the staff there. So since the only number I have is this lady's, I'm gonna have to call her.