During the worst rain southern California has seen in the past year, one of my kids left the gate to the back yard ajar. Juno, our frisky Alaskan Husky/Malamute mix, decided to go for a romp in the rain – but not before she, somehow, slipped off her collar and chewed it up! It must have been a half hour before I realized things were too quiet around the house. With a sickening feeling I realized that Juno was gone, and without her collar and tags! My son burst into tears, sure we would never find her on this awful, cold day. We searched and searched through the rain, calling Juno’s name, walking the neighborhood. No luck. I reported her lost to the local neighborhood pet alert website, and mentioned she was microchipped.

Two miles away, a neighbor found Juno and, seeing she didn’t look like a stray, even without a collar, took her to a nearby vet. Because Juno had no collar on, she could have been truly lost. We might never have gotten her had it not been for the microchip that allowed her to be instantly and accurately identified. At the vet’s, Juno was scanned, our PetLink info came up and, just an hour after she was lost, we were picking her up, safe and sound! Now to get that gate a lock!