Your Cat Needs a Tag and a Microchip!
Copyright Denver Dumb Friends League and Humane Society of the United States. All rights reserved.

Animal shelters throughout the country take in millions of lost cats each year and 99 out of 100 of these cats have no identification. Fewer than three out of 100 lost cats are reclaimed by their owners, and usually one of those three has an identification tag. The owners of the other two cats end up spending hours, days and even weeks looking for their lost cats and personally visiting every animal shelter in their area. Most owners of lost cats search long and hard, and never find their cats at all.

Don't risk losing your feline friend forever. Please put a collar on your cat and an identification tag with your name, address and two phone numbers. Be sure to keep the information current. You'll want to tag your cat even if you never let it go outside because there is always the chance that it could slip through an open door or window and become lost.

There are collars made especially for cats with a short piece of elastic sewn in. These "break-away" collars can be buckled snugly around the cat's neck, but will stretch and let the cat escape if it should get hung up on a tree limb or fence. It's important to remember that many more cats have died because they were lost and their owners couldn't find them, than have ever been injured from wearing a collar.

The first time you put a collar on your cat, give it a catnip-filled toy. The toy will distract the cat's attention from the odd feeling of wearing a collar and by the time it finishes shredding the toy, it may have forgotten the collar entirely.

A microchip is permanent form of identification. Microchips are about the size of a grain of rice and are implanted between your cat's shoulder blades with a syringe. Once implanted, the microchip is detected by a scanner that reveals the pet's unique identification number. That number is then entered into the animal shelter's database to determine the owner's name and phone number. A microchip is intended to be an enhancement to a collar and tag, not a replacement.

Microchipping is available from the Humane Society of Missouri Veterinary Medical Centers by appointment. To make an appointment at the Macklind Avenue Veterinary Medical Center, phone (314) 951-1534. To make an appointment at the Maryland Heights Branch, phone (314) 951-1590.

If you would like further assistance with this, or another pet behavior topic, please contact our Behavior Helpline at (314) 951-1540 or e-mail behavior.desk@hsmo.org.
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