Our volunteers received an email today that no one likes to see.  An injured stray-cat, which has been taken to a local shelter.  He was found with rubber bands around his neck.  Luckily, this one has a microchip.  The chip had been registered, but the owner in the database was the wrong person.  It would appear, the lady gave the wrong number to the national database.  Hence, why it is SO important for the implanter, like A.P.E. to keep good records too.  And for shelters, to do a bit more digging when things aren’t right, as this shelter did, by contacting us, A.P.E., the implanting facility.

A.P.E. uses a bar code scanner to ensure the 15 digit microchip number is entered into our database correctly.  The A.P.E. volunteer was able to quickly find the correct owner.  The cat was found about a half a block away from the owner’s home.

The shelter’s director contacted the owner.   He stated that he gave the cat away to a kid who was interested in the cat, but couldn’t remember the kid’s name.  It is extremely important when you re-home a pet, that you have the new owner sign a paper (and you keep this paper) stating they, the new owner, is taking over care of the animal.  Without this, we do not know if this man truly gave the cat away, or if he made it up.  We do not know if the new owner caused this injury, or if the owner on record did it, or if the cat just got out from either of their houses, and some random person on the street did this!

The positive side is, we know to NEVER to allow the owner on record to adopt a pet.  As obviously, he did not take the time to ensure the cat will be “out of harms way” in a new home, as he didn’t take the time to get to know the new owner, or kept records of where the cat was going.  We also know the cat’s vaccination history.

This cat is at a shelter that does Trap-Neuter-Return and is not at risk of being euthanized due to space, and is being treated for his injuries.  If the cat would be in a high volume, euthanizing shelter, A.P.E., being the microchip implanting facility, would have the legal option of pulling the cat as the microchip traces back to our shelter program!

The shelter that cat is at states they are not sure when the cat will be well enough to come back to the shelter.  The cat is at the local vet right now.  The shelter staff will keep asking when he will be ready to come home (to the shelter), but the vet office hasn’t given the staff a date.  It’s going to take the kitty a long time to heal and they would like to get him into a foster home, then adopted.

Please help A.P.E. continue to help kitties like this one.  Please donate today, so we can continue to give Free Petlink/Datamars Microchips to all pets we see.  Donations are tax deductible.

Donations may be made to A.P.E. via PayPal

 

 

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