Microchip ---Yes or No?

[Barbara, Founder and Moderator]

Do you microchip your pet? Yes or no? Why is it important or not important to microchip?

[Inge]

Yes. By all means, YES--especially the dogs. Shelters are full of roaming canines which could be identified and reunited with their owners if only they were chipped. Owners only too often call a nearby shelter the first day a pet goes missing...No, not there. Two days later, it is brought in...and nobody calls back. with dogs, if they have a rabies tag on, the local vet can check it...If the dog still has its collar (or ever had one in the first place).

In short, again: YES, definitely. Unfortunately, in the States, there are at least two different chipping companies--and if the local vets only have one...there you go...

[Jennifer]

I would do it, but whether or not the pets are microchipped is not up to me. Because of this none of my pets have ever been. It wasn't as commonly done with pets back when we had CeJaye, although there were three separate occasions where I almost lost him in his younger days but the first time my sister caught him, the second time I had to follow him around until he decided to allow me to pick him up (I caught up with him but he kept growling at me when I tried to pick him up so I had to wait until he was ready to let me.), and the last time he showed up back at the house before anyone but me knew he had been gone. Although he was never really lost at any of those times it would have been easy for him to have been and if that happened a microchip would have been helpful, especially with him being a biter.
On several separate occasions the vet has recommended microchipping Taco, but my Grandma is in charge of this and won't do it. Her argument is that, at his old home he was allowed to wander loose and always came back in, and now because we have hawks, foxes, and coyotes in the area he is never allowed outside without a leash or in the bunny run with the bunnies so he isn't going to get lost.
I remember there being something about a microchip when I got Chibi and Kojikaki so I am actually not positive that they weren't. I can't remember if it said we should do it or if that was something that had been done to them. Although with the bunnies, (And even Taco) there is a higher chance that if they ever got loose they would never get to a shelter. The hawks actually live in our backyard and the coyotes in the nearby woods. I'm not sure about the fox and Taco has more than once, been on a walk with me and has decided to lay in the sun in the middle of the street if my pets were lost, I would probably never get them back even with a microchip and because they don't have them and with the predators, none of the pets are ever allowed to be anywhere that isn't enclosed, except Taco on his leash, and the enclosure gets checked any time I plan on using it. Still, I know they should all have been micro chipped. Maybe the next pets will be, but as long as my Grandma is around and is in charge this won't happen, and I don't think anything could change her mind.