COLLEGE STATION, Texas — School has kicked off once again, and with so many individuals and families moving around, it may be easy for your pet to get lost in all the chaos.
Pets can disappear within a matter of seconds, but microchipping them can significantly increase the possibility of you reuniting with them.
“We adopted Honey from PetSmart in December. Whenever we got her, the microchip was already placed in her and that’s how when she got lost in March, that is how we found her," said pet owner Amanda Ramirez.
Ramirez was on her way to work when her cat Honey ran out the door and didn’t come back.
“I just kinda sat around and see if anybody will call me and nobody did and so after about a month or so, either somebody had kept her or something had happened to her and she wasn’t going to be able to come back home," said Ramirez.
A whole three months later, Ramirez received a shocking call from Aggieland Humane Society, asking if she was missing her cat.
“When I got that call, I was so excited, I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t even gather my thoughts at the time because I was like oh my gosh. The lady was like do you want her back, and I was like yes of course I definitely want her back, i’ll be there today," said Ramirez.
Someone had found Honey and wanted to keep her, but when they brought her to the shelter to get fixed, the team at Aggieland Humane Society recognized Honey had already been microchipped.
“A microchip is a tiny device that is inserted between your pet’s shoulder blades and here at the shelter it costs $25. What happens is we put the chip into your pet [and] we register your contact information nationally," said Aggieland Humane Society communication coordinator Darby McKenzie.
This information is shared with vet offices, animal shelters and pet stores who can scan your pet if it is lost.
“we see over 3,000 pets annually. I would say roughly a third of those have a chip and even less of those are actually filed under the proper contact information where sometimes the chips aren’t registered with the right information," said McKenzie.
She added that the shelter sees an increase in lost pets during the fall and winter season so it’s important to get your pet microchipped now.
Aggieland Humane Society said if you have moved or have changed any other information, make sure you are up to date with changing that information on your microchip.