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Lightning-Strike Pet Loss Support Forum _ Lost or Missing Pet Support _ Missing Cat Returns After Nine Years!

Posted by: gillian Sep 10 2008, 11:44 AM

LONDON (Reuters) - A couple have been reunited with their missing cat after nine years, the RSPCA said on Wednesday.

Dixie, a 15-year-old ginger cat, disappeared in 1999 and her owners thought she had been killed by a car.

But now in 2008, she was found less than half a mile from her home in Birmingham after a concerned resident rang the animal charity to report a thin and dishevelled cat who had been in the area for a couple of months.

RSPCA Animal Collection Officer Alan Pittaway checked her microchip and confirmed it was Dixie. She was returned to her owners, Alan and Gilly Delaney, within half an hour.

"In 29 years of working for the RSPCA I have never seen anyone so excited and happy as Mrs Delaney," Pittaway said. "It made my day to return Dixie to her owners."

The couple were "overjoyed" to be reunited with their missing cat after so many years.

"Dixie's personality, behaviour and little mannerisms have not changed at all," said Gilly Delaney. "We don't think she has stopped purring since she came back through the door."

The RSPCA hope the story will encourage owners to have their pets microchipped.


Posted by: nickels Sep 11 2008, 06:28 AM

Totally Amazing! It's a good thing that these people never moved. Thanks for posting this.

Michelle

Posted by: Furkidlets' Mom Sep 11 2008, 11:14 AM

Holy SMOKES! Yes, that's pretty incredible! ohmy.gif

Not to put a damper on this heartwarming story, but I have to wonder.....since she wasn't all that far away when she was found, did this couple really do their due diligence in searching for her when she first went missing 9 years ago? Or did they just rapidly assume she'd been hit by a car (as they said) and simply give up the search? One wonders what the poor baby did, or where she was, for all of 9 years...I know I'D be immediately grabbing the bottle of Rescue Remedy flower essence blend for her! (and a million other things to help her out)

I also note the use of this story by the RSPCA to promote microchipping, and don't agree with their choice of promotion. I remain skeptical on this point as microchips are invisible and many people don't/won't make a trip to the RIGHT vet (one who actually has a chip scanner - they're not that cheap and many vets don't have them yet) to CHECK for a chip in order to trace the guardian. I still believe tattoos are a much better option (unless they fade to nothing in no time flat as happens with SOME cats) because they're immediately visible by the naked eye and so make it obvious that a cat DID have a home at one point. They're also far less expensive for most people and don't carry the added and very real risk of causing cancer at the site of injection, as microchips are now known to do. And in either form of I.D., guardians MUST take it upon themselves to keep their addresses current, especially in the case of a missing animal.....seemingly, no matter HOW long it's been! So yes, good thing they hadn't moved, as most people aren't all that organized or diligent.

And I sure hope Dixie still has a good number of years left to her after FINALLY getting rescued and back where she belongs! smile.gif She certainly deserves a good, long and worry-free rest after her long, 9-year ordeal....the bulk of her lifetime, after all!

Maybe this story should be "pinned" though, so others whose cats have gone missing are sure to see it right up front?

Posted by: gillian Sep 11 2008, 11:37 AM

Isn't it amazing? smile.gif And so lovely. Dixie was probably wandering the streets as a stray all these years. It's amazing how well they can take care of themselves, feed themselves through hunting and scavaging, and find shelter under bushes. Still, she's much better off to live the rest of her days at home with her family. Just goes to show, you should never think the worst, until you know for certain the worst has happened.

All my pets are microchipped and tagged. All veterinary surgeries and animal control here can check their microchip.

Sebastian is due to be microchipped tomorrow; I want it done before he goes outdoors.

Posted by: Furkidlets' Mom Sep 11 2008, 12:36 PM

Or.....she may have been taken in, or taken care of, by someone else, or perhaps several others, and then abandoned or lost, again. That's not an uncommon scenario, either, with lost cats. If it were me, I'd be getting an ACer to check out her story of what she went through, both to see if it checked out (if any blatant clues were given) and to help her with any residual emotional or physical effects from her ordeal.

The UK must be ahead of N. America with chip reading. Here, the scanners have only become more prevalent in the last few years, and many vets still don't have them, depending on how metropolitan the area is. And even so, I've heard that it also depends on which company's chips you use, as to how far-reaching their database is for vets' use. And with some companies, even if you're the most current guardian of the animal, some of them won't even change the database info. to properly reflect that and the info. then only shows the "owner" as the one who got the chip in the first place! It's a stupid system that doesn't necessarily do the animal in question a whole lot of good when it's critical.

Posted by: gillian Sep 12 2008, 06:36 AM

I see your point.

But it once worked for me when my dog Nieko went walkies on his own, I had been grooming him and had gone indoors for a drink and when I came back out he was gone. I had taken his collar off to groom him. I searched everywhere, phoned the radio for shout outs, but nothing.

But a lovely concorned person saw him a few hours later and took him to the vet who checked his microchip and was able to phone me. Nieko was so excited to see me! lol. He had just followed his nose and got lost.

If it wasn't for his microchip, he could have been run over and killed, or the vets mightn't have been able to locate me, and rehomed him.

When a pet changes ownership, all you need to do is change the name and address on the database and you can do that at any veterinary surgery, as each microchip has it's own unique code, the code never changes, but the name and address can, for in the event that the pet changes ownership. Not that my babies would ever change ownership. They're mine always. smile.gif

Nothing is completely foolproof I'm sure, which is why my babies are all tagged as well as microchipped. My cats have a habit of losing their collars once in a while as they wear special stretchy collars which break apart easily for in the event the collar gets trapped, so the cat can escape. So their microchips would come in handy then.

Posted by: havana Sep 12 2008, 10:40 AM

Oh! How wonderful to hear such increible story, am so glad this happened, am also glad for the parents and more for the Furbaby. Please thank you for chering this with all of us here, you made my day! Jorge :wub

Posted by: ann Sep 20 2008, 12:53 AM

QUOTE (havana @ Sep 12 2008, 11:40 AM) *
Oh! How wonderful to hear such increible story, am so glad this happened, am also glad for the parents and more for the Furbaby. Please thank you for chering this with all of us here, you made my day! Jorge :wub

I heard that story on the news the other day. Wild!. Can you imagine!!. Piper has a microchip my sister in law had put in(this was her cat that she no longer wanted) Anyways, I tried to put a collar on her with name and adress and saying has microchip. She caught her botton tooth on the collar trying to get it off and almost broke her jaw. At the time we were just "taking care of her"but I have a funny feeling she has my address in that chip...I'll find out someday..be interesting..Anyways back to Darcy, there's always hope. Keep the faith.. Ann

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