Missing Senior Dog Reunited with Family

Miles is a wheaten terrier in his senior years who went missing for six weeks. The old pup has limited vision and seemed to have left through an open door. On the day that he went missing, his family searched frantically for him with no luck.

Fortunately, Miles had been micro-chipped, which aided a lot in reuniting him with his family. A remarkably shaggy Miles was found by compassionate strangers who took him to the Fulton County Animal Services shelter, which is run by LifeLine Animal Project. After six weeks of survival, the resilient pup was in need of a bath and some priming.

Thankfully, when the shelter scanned him, they found a microchip that allowed them to contact his parents. Lauren Ruiz, a PR manager at Lifeline, recalled Mile’s mom’s reaction, reporting that she broke down crying over the phone upon hearing that he was found. She was there 30 minutes after the call with open arms and loads of gratitude for what the shelter did for her and her family.

Miles’ story is one that shows how useful microchips are. The American Humane Association estimates that 3.9 million dogs go missing every year, which emphasizes a need for more effective modes of identification; this is where microchips come in. Microchips are tiny implants (about the size of a grain of rice) that contain a unique identification number that can help in contacting you should your dog be missing. The insertion procedure requires no sedation, it is as painless as a vaccine shot and it lasts a lifetime, making it a lot more reliable than ID collars.

Between 15 to 20% of dogs are micro-chipped in the U.S. which is considerably low, however, motions are being made in different states to turn that around. Animal shelters in Los Angeles have all their dogs micro-chipped before they are adopted, and the hope is that this becomes a nationwide practice to see more pups identified and reunited with their families.

Image Credit: Lifeline Animal Project