Every August 15 is National Check the Chip Day. This is a great reminder to all of us that getting your cat microchipped isn’t the only step in the process in giving her a much better chance of getting home.

Cats have a 20 times higher chance of being returned to their owners after entering an animal shelter if they are microchipped, but just having the microchip isn’t enough. That chip must be readable and the information must be up to date so the call about your kitty can find you. That’s what Check the Chip Day reminds you about.

First Step: Get Chipped

If your kitty isn’t already microchipped, don’t worry, it’s a simple procedure that can be done at your veterinarian’s office. Reduced-cost and sometimes even free microchips are often available at events in your community.

Microchips are a little larger than a grain of rice, and they are implanted under the skin with a large-gauge needle, like getting a vaccination.

Second Step: Get Registered and Keep Contact Information Current

Register your microchip, and keep it up to date if your contact information changes. Sometimes the veterinarian or organization who chips your cat will register your cat for you, but it’s best to follow up and make sure the paperwork got to the chip registry if you aren’t handling it yourself. If you move to a new address or get a new phone number, don’t just tell your friends. Tell the microchip registry, too.

This is important because one of the leading causes of microchipped pets not being able to get home is not being able to find the current contact information for the pet’s home. If you get a microchip implanted in your kitty and then move across the country, your old vet who implanted it may lose touch with you. If your microchip isn’t registered, the last person the microchip company knew had the chip was your old vet, and a call from an animal shelter trying to get your cat home can’t find you. So keep your contact information up to date with the chip registry to be found when your cat needs you most.

Third Step: Check The Chip

Check the chip! Microchips are implanted between the shoulder blades. When Ashton was a bony, little kitten, you could feel the chip, about the size of a big grain of rice, if you scritched her shoulders just right, just past the end of her neck at her shoulders.

In rare cases, a microchip can migrate. Pierre’s chip has migrated about two inches so you can feel it when you rub his shoulder blade. This is unusual enough that when our vet felt it, he called in some vet techs to feel Pierre’s chip so that they would recognize a migrated chip if they felt one.

In rare cases, a microchip can migrate. this doesn’t hurt your cat or dog, but it does mean that if someone passes a microchip scanner over your pet’s shoulders, it may not be be energized by the scanner’s electromagnetic field. This can lead to the microchip not being detected. To be sure this hasn’t happened, ask your veterinarian to scan for your cat’s chip as a part of their routine veterinary exam.

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References and further reading:

OSU Research News, Microchips Result in High Rate of Return of Shelter Animals to Owners
AVMA, Microchipping of Animals

Photo Credits:

depositphotos/vetkit
depositphotos/fotoluxstudio
Wikimedia Commons/Joel Mills
depositphotos/ivonnewierink

It’s World Cat Day. While we have cats here with us in our own living rooms, this is a good day to stop and give thanks to people who are making a difference for cats in their communities all around the world.

Here are just a few organizations around the world who are working hard to make a difference. Thanks to their efforts on points all around the globe today and every day.

Athens, Greece

Joan Gage wrote in The Secret Life of Greek Cats,“Everywhere you go in Greece you will find a cat…Cats are the punctuation in Greek life…During their catnaps they dream of the days when they were worshiped by the ancient Egyptians and didn’t have to rely on the kindness of strangers for food.”

Today, Greece has an estimated four million stray cats and dogs, and cities throughout are known for large populations of street cats. The Greek debt crisis meant an increased number of abandoned cats. These cats do have to rely on the kindness of strangers, or at least of neighbors who feed and care for them.

Helping Cats in Greece

The high population of feral cats makes organizations like Nine Lives Greece even more important. Nine Lives Greece is a volunteer network working on reducing feral cat population through TNR. Not only does the organization provide food and veterinary care for over 400 street cats every day, they help many more. Nine Lives spayed and neutered over 1200 cats in Athens in 2015, all through volunteer efforts. They also try to find homes for as many stray and abandoned cats as possible.

Inawashiro, Japan

Feral cats have large populations throughout Japan, especially in areas where there are plentiful food sources, such as urban centers. Probably most famous is Japan’s “Cat Island,” Tashirojima, which has become a tourist destination with more cats than humans living there.

The Japanese really love cats. Cat cafes, now becoming popular in the US, were first found in Japan. TNR programs to spay and neuter feral cats in communities are spreading throughout the country as people take care of the cats who live in their own communities.

Helping Cats in Japan

The Japan Cat Network is a volunteer-run organization helping the people throughout Japan help cats. They teach the importance of spay/neuter and TNR and connect people to local resources. The organization also became known for rescuing animals from the evacuated zone around the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant, and they run a shelter where these evacuees live.

Istanbul, Turkey

Turkey has an estimated two million stray cats, and Istanbul is well-known as a place where you can see feral cats around the city streets. They are so prevalent that some people refer to the city as “Catstantinople” after the city’s former name and its oversupply of felines.

You can find cats everywhere in the city, often sleeping on parked cars or following fishermen in hope of a free meal. Feral cats in Istanbul aren’t usually starving and hoping for a free meal. A remarkable network of humans feeds them, and Turkish state policy is to trap, neuter, and then release them again (TNR). Unfortunately, there aren’t enough funds to perform TNR on such a big population of cats, so day-to-day care falls to the neighborhoods where the cats live.

Helping Cats in Turkey

He’Art of Rescue, a volunteer-run nonprofit started  in 2011, helps feral cats in critical situations in Istanbul, fostering them as they are nursed back to health. They have found homes for rescued cats abroad where they can live out their lives in comfort away from the city streets.

More Places Around The World

There are thousands of organizations and committed cat lovers making a difference for cats who don’t have anyone else other places around the globe.

To every single one of them, thank you. World Cat Day wouldn’t be the same without you.

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Image credits:

depositphotos/cowardlion
Flickr creative commons/Liz Lawley
depositphotos/deraugenzeuge