Microchip Madness ??

Have 2 weeks really passed us by ?

Surely not .........

The past 2 weeks have been what I can only express as quiet, sad, and deeply frustrating.

There hasn't been one call from anyone sighting our boy, nor has there been any news whatsoever from Welwyn.....to say we are at loss........ well it's really the truth.

What happens next ? Where do we go to from here ?

Well what happens next is that we carry on, and continue to be pro-active.

Set those publicity cogs whirring into action, and alert vets, rescues and dog wardens again, as well as re-alert those people we initially made contact with that Jacob is still out there, missing.

One thing I have to tell you is that we have be lucky enough to get 4 A4 pages of coverage in two of the UK's leading dog magazines, Dogs Monthly and Dogs Today both covered our appeal and story for Jacob and we truly cannot Thank Beverley and Caroline enough for this.

Both magazine copies are available now if you want to read the article. It's the June editions.

We didn't know both would run the article, but we are pleased all the same that Jacob has been able to gain this much needed publicity.

http://www.dogstodaymagazine.co.uk/ http://www.dogsmonthly.co.uk/

The huge audience that they cover between them will hopefully reach out further for Jacob to be seen somewhere, and we can be alerted of him perhaps being unknowingly with a new owner who is looking at the magazines for new dog ownership help.

These past weeks have taught us a huge lesson too.

To not get complacent that almost everyone who needs to know our dog is missing knows....

.....Spread the word he is still missing comes across very clear.

We have had 3 calls in from members of the public who have read the article and whom have had differing stories of their dogs being taken, be that lost or stolen, and whom have eventually been rescued by dog rescues, and vets, and whom have all been microchipped.

These dogs were either sent on to rescue kennels, having been passed first to a local vet, or they have gone the whole hog so to speak, and have fully experienced the rehome procedure.

All good, but with one common problem......they have been rehomed with the original owners chip still intact.

One poor lady who called us telling of her a 4 month old rare breed dog who had been stolen, and that she was pretty sure she knew where her puppy was, and was 99% sure who had taken him.

Armed with this information sh went to the police, but unfortunately they were helpless at that time, and were not able to be of help for many months sadly.

This lady, well she had to pretty much sit back and wait it out.

Meanwhile she was trawling the streets daily in case these thieves slipped up, and in the hope of seeing her boy, this situation only culminating in him getting found by police, when finally the premises where he and others were kept were raided by police.

You would hope that was the end of her ordeal, knowing that this puppy was only 4 months old when stolen, but no, this pup was taken to the vets to be checked, microchipped, then passed to this large scale rescue. Remember here that he is already microchipped by the original owner.

It was only the final vet check prior to rehome procedures some weeks later, and a savvy person properly scanning this dog, that thankfully the scanning showed up 2 chips (one inserted by the vet) and the original chip....It was through the 1st chips older date the owner finally had that long awaited call.

Sadly this was many months later, so she was reunited with a dog that she had lost all puppyhood with, and who was now an adult.

The happy ending was that he still recognised her, and her other dog too.

I feel she was very, very lucky, but the dog was even more so.

We have had echoes of this ladies story actually, something I was scared of to be honest.

One man called and said he had been advised his dog was in a rescue centre many miles from his home, he of course rang them, was told no that dog is most definitely not here, but thankfully he couldn't let this knowledge rest, and his curiosity got the better of him.

Having driven over 200 miles to the rescue in question, there was his dog, staring back at him in a kennel, microchip firmly in place.

He said they had quoted lack of time as being the reason the microchip had got missed, and their time was 'about the animals welfare'. Surely that 'welfare' extends it's right to being reunited with it's legal owner.

Pretty shocking really as I thought that was the whole idea of having your dog microchipped in the 1st place.

Now don't get me wrong, i'm truly not knocking the procedures and good work these charities and rescues do, that wouldn't be right, as they do an awful lot of good and save many dogs lives through their efforts. Most do not run on huge budgets, and time is at a premium.

However, i'm told that sometimes a dog that is chipped, and perhaps whose chip has migrated to a strange place in their body, needs to be scanned very thoroughly for it to be found.

Some half and hour perhaps to locate it.

Now, how many charitable organisations have half an hour per dog to check a dog is microchipped ? I would think that they have other pressing priorities, and that is getting the dog vet checked and settled to relieve stress, and I would say that takes priority over half an hour of scanning.

In their eyes, there wouldn't be enough hours in the day otherwise would there ?

It's all so difficult to know how this could be remedied. Their good intentions are commendable, but we need these dogs scanned properly by everyone involved in the rescue process, that is from dog wardens, vets, and rescues. Surely with 3 people in the process, at least one of them could extend to that thorough scanning process.

My argument would be that spend the half an hour, and they would be spared the expense of spending time and money caring for a dog that perhaps a few hours later could be reunited in the care of it's original owners, and they are then of course, spared any expense for vet care and food.

It's a difficult situation I know, and one which I don't know the answer to.

All said and done time is money, and time is sometimes not a luxury a rescue outfit has.

It's all about the dogs welfare, safety and health.

I would say that perhaps sometimes dogs do fall through the loop and microchips do get missed along the way.

The contact i've had from people these past 16 weeks tell me this is in fact true, as much as I don't want to believe it does happen, they assure me it does.

I'm now terrified in case Jacob has become a victim to the whole scanning procedure, and that he has endured the process of perhaps being picked up as a stray, kenneled, and duly rehomed.

I reason with myself that I would be more than happy to know this happened (hmmmm!?)

Thinking it through, I guess as it would mean that through that mistake, he was loved and cared for, and most of all safe.

If I had a phone call from someone saying they couldn't give him up and he was safe it would make things okay in the end wouldn't it ?......(okay, I would hunt them down, but that's besides the point lol!) but at the end of the day, you have to remember one thing. He is ours.

The microchip inside him, well it states that doesn't it.

It should be the one single factor that means he makes his way home.

So why isn't it ?

The other thing that has prayed on my mind again is that he isn't out there to be found.

As harrowing as those thoughts are for us both, they are ones that we have to be reason with.

That bad weather the few weeks after his disappearance, and the fact that in reality he has hardly been spotted in 17 weeks. It makes you be reason to yourself, more for the fact that you need answers, closure, purely for your own sanity.

How can we go on and on like this is beyond me. It hurts like hell.

The publicity machine isn't interested to be honest, and believe me we have tried endlessly to reactivate the tv and radio interest. I can see their point, there is no story other than a missing dog, but it still doesn't help.

A read out on national tv, a 20 second appeal, it could do wonders.

I have to say a huge Thank You to the ladies who gave us their 'Jacob' boards complete with posters and information, and whom between them printed off thousands of leaflets and handed them out at shows for us.

Your generosity of time and effort taken to do these is just fantastic, Thank You.

We will do our best to visit Paws in the Park http://www.pawsinthepark.net/ this year to flyer the public there, and also we'll be contacting this week lots of the UK's country game fairs and shows that are going on.

Someone there may know about Jacob if he's being kept local to them.

Hell, he could even be being walked around these shows and going by unnoticed ?

Please, if anyone sees a white and orange Bracco anywhere, can you please stop that person and ask questions.

Jacob has a small lump on his left shoulder, like a small nodule under the skin that is the size of a small pea, so run your hand there if you are unsure.

Sadly I never heard back from the Eastbourne dog warden, but have left messages at the council there, and sent emails.

So the Bracco seen there by this lady has gone by, and even through a mass of emails between Bracco owners and puppy purchasers amongst them, we really don't know whose dog that was.

It could have been Jacob for all I know.

I would hope that any dog warden, or any person whatsoever seeing an orange and white Bracco, and being aware Jacob is out there, would approach any owner nicely and ask where they bought him from. I would never take offence at anyone asking me about any of my dogs, it would make me feel happy being advised of the circumstances to any questions, that there were people willing to come forward and authenticate me !

There are only so many Bracco breeders, and so they would know where a particular dog originated from, their traceability would be pretty easily done.

Today and this week will be spent contacting rescues once again, dog wardens, and vets.

I will also take time again this week to research gypsy liaison officers further in the hope they will not take offence at me contacting them, and they will keep a look out on their site visits.

Finally, sorry this blog ended up such a ramble of thoughts, but rest assured that we are still here, working behind the scenes in order to bring our handsome chap home where he belongs.

Thanks for keeping Jacob's search alive, and for all of your positivity, it helps more than you will ever know.