I have met over 20 stray dogs in the past year and heard of countless more. 20 may sound like a small number, but for me, that means 20 loving homes that need to be found. Imagine finding 20 families who want a dog, not a puppy, and want to commit the next decade or two to raising this lovable animal. Now 20 is a considerable number. And not all those housing situations work out, so Amal does a lot of Re-homing of cats and dogs that are “owner surrenders.”
Besides, things happen that are out of our control. Allergies are one such invisible force that divide families. My own parents had to re-home their cat when my mom became deathly allergic during her pregnancy. Then my little brother developed asthma early in life. Of course my parents loved their cat, Marbles, but Marbles could not come back. Marbles went to live with my Uncle Gary, and then Gary moved, with Marbles, to a different state. Marbles didn’t like the new home and ran away. He wasn’t microchipped, and we never found him. I hope Marbles found his way to an animal shelter like Amal and then on to a permanent loving home. But Today, I have the honor of telling you about a reunion, not a loss.
Two little pups were rescued by a young couple and as the puppies began to grow, the young lady had both the pups spayed and micro-chipped. She then discovered she was going to have a child and as her pregnancy continued she came to the realization that she was allergic to the little blonde puppy.
So doing what many expectant mothers do, she asked a co-worker to care for her dog until the baby was born. And so off went the little blond pup to another home just for a short time. Well a sweet little girl was born and now they wanted their little, now grown pup back. There was a problem, however, the co-worker no longer had the puppy . It seems that the pup, and the co-worker’s dog had somehow gotten out of the yard run off. (It is worth mentioning that this Co-worker didn’t seem to attempt to find the dogs. There is no excuse for the co-worker’s actions. There are always things you can do if you lose your pet!) These two dogs were found in a parking lot by a young man. He took them to the local vet and both received basic care and then took them home. This was back in March 2018, now mind you, the child was born in May 2017. The young man could not properly care for both these dogs in the long term and contacted our rescue. He kept the co-worker’s dog and we welcomed the blonde dog in April of this year. This past Tuesday we took the dog, now named Kelly to be spayed, and were surprised to learn that she had already been fixed and microchipped as well!
Boy was this exciting! With the information on the microchip we located the young couple, now a family of 3, and they certainly wanted their beloved dog back. With great joy, we reunited this family. One success like that makes all the struggles and sad stories about abandoned cats and dogs worth the work. It may sound like a miracle, but in fact it was the microchip that gave Kelly her happy reunion.
I cannot tell you how important it is to microchip your pet! You never know what will happen and microchipping your four-legged friend provides a safeguard for both you and them. Both my mom and Kelly’s owner developed allergies in pregnancy, meaning their pet had to find a new home temporarily. The co-worker in this story was the wrong person to entrust a dog to, but you can’t always know that ahead of time. Marbles and Kelly have similar stories, but because Kelly was microchipped, her story ends happily. Marbles, we can only hope for the best, but it’s a tough world out there. Usually, the turnaround from lost to reunited takes much less than a year. The process takes a matter of weeks if the pet is found quickly and gets the right help. If you find a stray dog or cat, always have a vet check for a microchip and make sure they are fixed. Make sure your beloved pet, if ever they get lost, has a Kelly ending and not a Marbles ending. Microchip your pet today!
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