I bought my American Pit Bull Terrier, Ruger, as a puppy when he was eight weeks old. I immediately took him for all his shots and had him microchipped. He was mostly an inside dog but, very occasionally, he would be tied up outside. When Ruger was about eight and a half months old, someone came in my yard on one of those rare occasions and stole him. I found out that it was a theft when we were reunited via Ruger’s PetLink microchip a whole year later.

This was when animal control picked Ruger up as a stray dog. Later I heard how he had dug his way out of an outside pen where he was being kept by a girl who had bought him from the thieves. They had even created fake registration papers for Ruger so I don’t think she knew that he was stolen when she bought him. Animal control scanned Ruger’s chip which was the saving grace. Without the chip I wouldn’t have been contacted and the other girl would have picked Ruger up from the shelter. Now he’s back home, out of the cold, where he belongs