Calla
Calla is a beautiful cat with a special kindness about her, she is happy and content, unless of course she has something to tell you and she will talk on and on telling you her story. Fifteen months ago she went missing from our yard and we frantically combed the neighbourhood knocking on doors, putting up posters offering a reward for her safe return. That same week, 3 other cats in our neighbourhood went missing all within a quarter of a block, all within 3 days. When I contacted animal control the officer advised me that there had been many calls of missing cats from cat owners in our neighbourhood. Clearly, we had a problem in our neighbourhood. I realized I had to become a more vigilant in respect to allowing my cats to play in our yard un-supervised.
As the days, weeks and months passed we missed our beloved Calla so much, we talked of her all the time. After time passed we adopted another cat from the Hervey Foundation whom is also an amazing member of our family.
A month ago we received a phone call from the Edmonton Humane Society advising us that Calla had be brought in to the Society as a stray, and we can come and pick her up. She had been missing for 15 months, we were elated and anxious to pick her up and bring her back home. We were so thankful to get this call and find out that she was in ok condition. Calla had a microchip which enabled the Humane Society to contact us. She is slowly gaining her health back and returning to the cat she was before this unfortunate experience. However, this is a very happy ending to what began as a very sad story.
I can not stress the importance of ensuring your Cat has some form of identity. An identity tag is better than nothing. However, these can easily drop off. Therefore, micro chipping really is the safest form of ensuring that should your pet be lost, whatever it is, it has a good chance of coming home, just like Calla. The Hervey Foundation, Vet Clinics and most rescue centres now use scanning devices.
Unfortunately, or not, an animal cannot speak and has no way of informing anyone of its origins. The pet is lost, the owner is frantic with worry, and the animal rescue centres are bursting at the seams. If your Pet does end up at an animal control facility your beloved pet may have been re- homed before your search has really begun in earnest, or at worst put down.
No-one wins, except the lucky person who now has your pet, everyone looses. Do yourself the best favour you can as a Cat and Pet Owner, especially for cats who are not safe inside the home all the times and get them micro chipped. It’s one of the best investments you can make, especially bearing in mind that if a Cat is taken to the Pound, the cats’s first day’s stay costs more than it does to microchip it in the first place, and costs keep mounting each extra day it is there.
Ron and Deborah McPherson