Be sure dog has tag with phone number

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, July 7, 2007

My husband and I were sitting on our deck late on July 3, listening to the fireworks people were lighting in our surrounding neighborhood. It was almost midnight when suddenly a frightened old yellow Labrador retriever appeared in our backyard. He looked at us and started to run away. I was able to coax him back, leashed him up and gave him a big bowl of water. He was at least 10 years old, very tired and shaking because he was so afraid. I checked his collar and thank goodness his owners had attached a tag with three different phone numbers. I was able to get a hold of the owner and he was very relieved to hear from me. His dog had disappeared earlier in the evening, frightened by all the fireworks. He had traveled at least a mile before reaching our house.

I want to remind owners of the importance of putting a tag on your pet containing your phone numbers. I see so many animals wearing a collar with no tags, or just a vaccination tag. This makes it very difficult to find a lost animal’s owner. If this dog was not wearing a tag with his phone numbers, it would have been a much bigger issue for us to find his home, especially over a holiday. He would have spent the night in our house, we would have made “found” signs to hang in the area, we would have placed a “found ad” in the Herald classifieds, then taken him to a vet to see if he had a microchip implant for identification. Instead, the owners were at my house by 12:30 a.m. and the lucky dog was back with his master. Please take the time to buy your pet a tag engraved with your phone numbers.

Alison Douglas

Stanwood