Intruder

As I was returning from the grocery store I could see through the window that the dogs were on high alert. There was an intruder in the yard! The dogs are very good at what they believe is their Number One Job: alerting the household if an enemy approaches. They like to let us know when each of the neighbors come home, if a stranger walks by the house and they do a great job of keeping the mailman away. Today the intruder was a chubby yellow Labrador who was sniffing at the shrub that Lance likes to pee on as part of his daily routine.

He seemed shy when I approached him with a hand to sniff so I entered the house grabbed my dog retrieval tools (leash and yummy biscuit) and headed back outside. Now we were friends and as Nick (as his collar informed me) chomped down on his peace offering, I clicked the leash into place. Luckily for Nick, he wore an identification collar that included not only his name, but also his address and phone number. We walked home which was only a few blocks away and found Nick’s mom who was very relieved to have her pooch back. It was a good thing Nick had an ID tag with such good information.

We have seen several dogs (and some cats) in our neighborhood wander and most don’t have any visible form of identification. Sometimes we know who they are, but if we don’t recognize them it can be hard to find their owners (although I have to say with persistence we have always been successful.) Microchips are another good form of identification. Scanners can read microchips and help identify an owner. If you have a microchip for your pet make sure your information is up to date on-line. My pets all have microchips but I realize as I write this that they have all lost their id tags. I could definitely see the dogs bolting after a deer or wild discarded hotdog and becoming lost, so I’m going to go buy them some new ones.