Man in a coma wakes up to find his dog is missing

[Catherine]

Bubba was seriously ill when they put him in a medically induced coma. When he woke up three weeks later he found out his dog was missing.
A search of shelters and lost dog notices finally found Bullet. He had been fostered and was about to be adopted from Dallas Animal Services.
Bubba  was still in a rehab hospital and unable to claim his dog. Fortunately, Joppie, who runs a dog rescue, got involved. She approached animal services and sorted out all the paper work. She was even able to take Bullet to visit Bubba at the rehab hospital.
Bubba and Bullet are now back home together living life as they should.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle...ch-joppie/

I love a happy ending. Bubba got better and he got his dog back.
Bullet got lost, but he was found and made it back home to Bubba.
I wish everything in life worked out so well.

[LPC]

I'm glad that it all worked out well - but why don't the Americans make microchipping compulsory? It means any dog or cat (or even alpaca) can be traced easily in a few seconds with a scanner.

[Catherine]

You are right, a microchip would have solved the whole problem.
Microchipping is not that common in North America. In some areas it would be hard to get a pet microchipped.
We need to push for it. It would have been so sad if he had lost his dog. I think the dog has really helped him to recover.

[LPC]

In France all vets and gendarmeries/police stations have a microchip reader. So do animal shelters. So do most professional animal breeders and even some keen amateurs. I got a microchip reader for my sheep and many years later it is still useful for alpacas.

Forgy and I are never separated and we have fencing all around our land. But even if the worst were to happen, I know that he could be identified immediately on a central registry.

[Catherine]

Definitely France is way ahead when it comes to microchipping. You are ahead when it comes to readers too.

I never thought about microchipping for sheep and other farm animals. It would be an accurate way to identify an animal. 
It would work for cattle too. It would solve a lot of problems when animals are very similar looking.

I hope microchipping catches on here. So many lost animals would go home so much sooner.