Hervey Foundation

Identify

Lost Cat - Reward
The headline never fails to cause a twinge of empathy in a cat lover. Nothing can approximate the emotions playing hopscotch through the mind of someone who has lost a cat: fear that you’ll never see her again; fear that you will see her again— a broken corpse thrown to the side of a road; paranoia that someone has stolen her; anger at the cat for escaping; guilt and remorse for allowing her escape; hope that any minute now you’ll hear that familiar “meow” and she’ll be waiting patiently at the front door; and that heavy, dull, empty feeling of loss. Whether cats are of the indoor only variety or indoor-outdoor, the fact is that at one time or another, given the right conditions, they may disappear--for a few days, or for forever. There is much you can do to weigh the odds in your kitty’s favor, should she ever become lost.

Identify Your Cat
As the title of this article indicates, all cats need an identity. It does no good for a kindhearted stranger to take in your frightened, lost kitty, if he doesn’t know how to locate her owner. It has been estimated that currently approximately nine million cats enter shelters annually, and only a sad 3% make it back to their own homes. Proper identification of these cats could greatly increase their odds, and it is up to us, their human companions and caretakers to see that they have that fighting chance.

Identification Methods
There are a number of means available to kitty caretakers for identifying their beloved furballs, from the traditional collar or harness with engraved tags to tattoos to the newer high tech devices such as microchips.

Collars and Tags
Collars come in a wide variety of colors, materials and styles, as do the associated identification tags they hold. In municipalities requiring registration or licensing, collars and tags may be mandatory, as well as areas which have mandatory rabies vaccination for cats.

Tattooing
Tattoos can be placed either on the inner leg of the cat, which requires shaving, or inside the outer ear. Tattooing usually requires anesthesia.

Microchips
Microchips are tiny transponders, about the size of a grain of rice. They consist of a miniaturized coil and a memory circuit encased in biocompatible glass, and are small enough to fit in a hypodermic syringe. Your veterinarian implants the microchip just under the skin between the shoulder blades, and the whole procedure takes only a minute or so. The chip’s memory circuit contains a unique number registered to your cat, which can be read by special scanners found in many veterinary offices and shelters.

Why Use Microchips?:
Permanent. Once implanted, the chip cannot be dislodged, and will last a lifetime.
Quick--takes less than a minute.
Does not require an anesthetic.
The cat is not bothered by it once implanted.
May deter theft, or at least make theft easy to prove if the culprit is caught “with the goods.”
Implanted chips are tamper-proof.
Does not disfigure like a tattoo.

Peter Denooy, D.V.M.
EIDAP INC.

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