Chipped for their Protection

Our dogs are castaways. Dogs that other owners have thrown away for one reason or another. Because they are free dogs, I am often appalled at the expense of the treatments suggested by the Vet. I generally say no to all offered teeth cleanings, lumpectomies and beauty treatments.

My husband has a little more difficulty saying 'no'.

Last time I let him take the dogs to the Vet by himself, he came home with them chipped. That's right. Stray dogs that were abandoned by their owners now have microchips implanted in their shoulders. My dogs are low jacked. There's a website where we update our contact information and for a low annual fee, they will facilitate the dogs return to us in case the dogs wander off. Read this: they will track the dogs by satellite and tell us where they are.

I have a friend who has a lot of acres of land at the end of a long dirt road. People drive to the end of her street and dump off dogs all the time. Since I'm trying to find new homes for my pets, this solution has bobbed up in the back of my mind. I could dump my dogs off at the end of her lane, and being the soft hearted dog lover she is, she would treat them better than they were ever treated in my house.

Only trouble, the dogs are microchipped. If she takes them to a Vet, the vet will scan the chip and they can look up our name/address and phone number online. So I guess I can't just dump them off any more. They've been chipped for their own protection.

But I have the login/password to the site. What's to keep me from changing the contact information to my friend's name, address and phone number? When the Vet reads the chip, he'll get the information that THESE are her dogs!! What a great idea. I think I'll run with that one.

--Sandee Wagner