Woman who never stopped updating her lost dog's chip reunites with him after 11y

I wear one of these chips on my wristwatch since the 125 kHz RFID lets me open doors and use the elevator in my building without needing to pull out my keys. It’s entirely passive so I’m guessing that the chip in question carries an ID that is read by a reader and points to an ID on some pet identification database. So she was “updating the chip” less and “keeping the database up to date” more.

Ubiquitous microchips are really quite amazing.

Thanks for the heartwarming story, loved it! Quite a nice change from all the depressing news otherwise.

> her beloved pit bull, Forty-Cal, had been missing for 11 years.

> He's super docile and friendly. Always has been.

Are pit bulls known for being docile?

I wonder how the dog survived for 11 years... Surely he wasn't a stray that entire time?

These microchips are amazing technology.

I highly highly encourage all you pet lovers to obtain one for your little homie.

You never know when you’ll need it.

"She brought him into the house with her parents and they made him some hotdogs."

Is it common in US to feed dogs with hotdogs?

Can someone here explain what she was updating? If her dog wasn't nearby, what does it mean to "update his chip"?

I don't mean to sound snarky, but I wonder if people would feel the same joy if they found their lost children after a long time, or if the joy would be muddled quickly due to complicated relationships :'( . We are a very peculiar species.

>I had other animals in the house, as well, that were family pets, but Forty was my dog," she said. "I paid for him with my own money at 16 years old."

... I don't if it's an American thing but it's not something I'd say. The dog is an animal, it feels like it's compared to a car that she paid with HER OWN MONEY and then was stolen..

Tell me you loved him, it was the one you loved the most, stuffs like that but 'i paid for it with my own money'... She might as well has bought an iphone.

I don't think it's legally required for vets to check chips whenever new "owners" take them in for a visit. I've been holding out hope for reuniting with my missing cat Salt, but wherever he is, he's happily in someone else's living room. And I doubt the microchip will bring him back anytime soon.

Sadly cat snatching is a real thing that's happened to me possibly twice. The first time was confirmed beyond a doubt; I had to bust out my cat from her back porch at 2am or so when I was roaming the neighborhood looking for him. The only reason I was even in the vicinity was that it was the last spot the GPS tracker reported before he went missing.

"Keep your pets indoors, then!" Yeah, yeah. The risks come with the territory. But my boy Pepper is still with me after a couple years, and I'm hoping a tag with "I have a happy home" followed by my number will keep would-be "do-gooders" away. (A lot of these crazy folks that snatch pets think they're doing the pet a favor by taking them.)

Miss you Salt.

Anyway, the point is, if vets were legally required to actually check the chips when they're brought in for appiontments, they'd quickly notice the discrepancy. They're the only entity in the world in a position to do something about it. But what vet is gonna try to take "your" pet away from you when you take them in just because of mismatched chips? Nobody, because pets are property, and that would be theft according to the law.

was the dog a stray for 11 years? or just owned by someone? I'm not following what actually happened

Microchipping dogs makes a lot of sense. What are the privacy concerns though? If someone wants to hunt a person down, I imagine the microchips in the dogs would make a great tracking device.

I received an email about a lost dog 10 years after I adopted her and then gave her to another family. They got her back!

Databases work!

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