EVERETT — Sit, Max, sit.
While others squealed and snarled and yelped, Max was a vision of calm.
Stay, Max, stay.
While a handful of nearby cats in carriers proved too much temptation for most of the strutting mutts, neither the felines nor his yapping comrades rattled Max’s steady, unflappable gaze.
Good dog, Max, good dog.
"He is a total lovebug," said Lorry Darling of Machias, Max’s owner.
In January, she adopted 2-year-old Max, a Labrador retriever and pit bull mix. He was underweight, sick and terrified.
With love and patience, Darling nursed Max back to health, and after a few months he stopped walking around with his tail between his legs.
"Now it wags," she said. "Now he talks. Now he plays. He’s spoiled."
With his athletic figure, astute posture, big brown eyes, floppy ears and shiny fur, Max could be a doggy model — the kind that graces the front of giant bags of kibble.
Max didn’t even notice when veterinarian Selma Sholes, volunteering her time for the city-sponsored Mutt Strut, stuck a needle in his shoulder to inject a pet identification microchip.
"I figure if he got lost and ended up in the pound once, that was enough," Darling said. "He doesn’t need to be there again."
As if the canine fun walk called Mutt Strut alone wasn’t enough, with its contests, tricks, costumes, vendors and all-around dogaliciousness, the free identification microchips for cats and dogs drew hundreds before the strut even began at Langus Riverfront Park.
Saturday’s second annual Mutt Strut marked Snohomish County’s first widespread distribution of pet microchip implants free to the first 1,000 cats and dogs.
By midmorning, 250 cats and dogs — an almost even split of each — had already had microchips implanted.
The county bought 1,000 of the microchips, each just larger than a grain of rice.
Using a syringe, the chips, which cost about $5 each, are injected into the skin just above the pet’s shoulder. The skin soon grows around the chip so it doesn’t move.
Once chip-equipped, if a pet gets lost, animal control officers can wave a wand over the shoulder, bringing up that pet’s number. The number corresponds with the animal’s license on file with the county.
This way, officers can quickly identify and return pets instead of taking them to the pound. It costs the county $60 each time a stray animal is checked into a shelter, said Sheila Allen of the Snohomish County Animal Advisory Board. But if animal control officers can scan the pets to find their owners, the animals get "a free ride home."
"The Whidbey Island Kennel Club donated three microchip scanners to the county so each animal control vehicle can carry one along," Allen said.
Studies have shown that 98 percent of microchip-tagged pets are reunited with their families.
Pet owners who would like a microchip can visit most veterinarians.
All kinds of dogs were waiting in line Saturday, from the tiniest dachshund to a 160-pound giant Alaskan malamute named Riley.
Cats, all in pet carriers, were taken in a large RV to be equipped with chips.
After Saturday, hundreds of pets will be more easily returned should they wander off, like the 6-month-old cat named Tattoo did.
"She escaped the other day," said Tattoo’s owner, Dorothy Crossman of Everett. "It’s good to have her microchipped so we can get her back, even though I intend to keep her inside."
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
