Family Reunited With Dog Thanks To Microchip
November 6, 2020 at 2:53 a.m.
Family Reunited With Dog Thanks To Microchip
By Amanda Bridgman-
Paul and Kristy Schmitt, who live on East Pierceton Road in Winona Lake, said around 6 p.m. Sept. 26 Paul had gone after their golden retriever, Dexter, who had gotten loose and was running across a parking lot near their home. As Paul returned home safely with Dexter, the couple realized their 8-month-old Yorkshire Terrier, Lucy, was gone.
“So we immediately started looking, and we had about a 2-1/2-hour window of daylight,” Kristy said about their search in their cars, on their bicycles and on foot. It was then, while the couple’s daughter was talking to the neighbors, who were standing outside, that Dexter ran out and, according to the neighbors, a car had stopped and asked the neighbors if they were looking for a dog. The neighbors, not knowing about Lucy, said no. But the occupants of the car told the neighbors that a car up ahead had stopped and put a little dog in their vehicle and drove east.
By the time the Schmitts got this information, Kristy said they had no idea what to do. What they did do was hang a missing sign on their mailbox with Lucy’s picture, took out an ad in the Times-Union and created a social media page to help get people’s eyes looking.
Time passed, and although Kristy said the prayers and kind remarks and suggestions of people on social media have been a blessing, she now believes it wasn’t social media that helped them reunite with Lucy.
It was Lucy’s microchip.
On Monday, Kristy got a call around 4 p.m. from Lucy’s microchip company and informed her that Lucy needed immediate emergency services. Kristy called the number she was given and spoke with Fort Wayne’s animal control. She was told that Lucy was found by a passerby in the alley behind Panera Bread on Coliseum Boulevard. That caller told animal control “a little dog was dragging its back legs in the alley and needs help,” Kristy said.
“That is who got the ball rolling,” she said. Her dog was then taken by animal control to the an emergency animal clinic on the northside of Fort Wayne, where staff checked for a microchip. That microchip was the key to reuniting the Schmitts with Lucy, miles away. “We are so indebted to all those people who acted so quickly on her behalf,” she said.
Kristy immediately went to Fort Wayne and had to take Lucy to the small animal clinic teaching hospital at Purdue in West Lafayette. It was there that she learned Lucy is paralyzed from the mid-section of her body to the back due to some type of blunt force trauma that had occurred at least two days prior to her being found. Her back leg femur is broken badly, and the Schmitt’s have decided not to put Lucy through the trauma to repair it, because since she is paralyzed she feels no pain from it anyway.
Lucy is currently being fitted for a wheelchair and will be coming back home to her Warsaw family possibly as early as this afternoon. She will suffer from constant urinary tract infections, Kristy said, and the Schmitts will have to express her bladder for her for the rest of her life.
The Schmitts believe Lucy was dumped in the alley in Fort Wayne, but by whom they do not know.
“We drove the area yesterday, and so we do not believe there is any way she carried herself, injured that way, by herself. She had to have been taken there and dropped off,” Kristy said.
Finding out who is responsible is something the Schmitts have vowed to get to the bottom of. They’re certain that since the alleyway is in a business district, there must be cameras. However, their bigger focus is on raising awareness about the importance of microchipping pets.
The chips are the size of a grain of rice, cost $30 at the Animal Welfare League of Kosciusko County and are put in with a needle under the pet’s skin above the shoulder blade, AWL Director Sally Scott said.
“Most people think, as we did, that a chip is almost like a tracking device,” Kristy said. “It is only useful at this point in time if someone checks the chip.”
Scott explained that the chip includes a 15-digit special ID number that is associated with the pet owner’s information, such as their name, address and phone number. It is important that the owner register the chip, Scott said, and keep that information up to date if they move or get a new phone number.
Having that chip registered allows places like the AWL or veterinary offices to immediately see the owner’s information. If the chip isn’t registered, Scott said sometimes she is able to track down the place business where the chip was inserted and try to go from there to get identifying information.
“I think it’s so important. Many of our reclaims are because the animal was microchipped and we were able to contact the owner instead of the pet waiting at the shelter for weeks on end, and in the meantime we are scouring lost and found pages,” Scott said. “It’s very quick and very easy to do. It is well worth being able if your pet ever did get lost, the chances of it being found and returned to you are quite high.”
For the Schmitts, they now have a GPS tracker collar on Dexter. His exact location can be viewed through an app on Paul’s phone.
In the meantime, the Schmitts hope that raising awareness for microchipping and tracker collars will help deter any people who think about dognapping.
“Our hope is that Lucy is going to be pain free and she’s going to live a long, happy life,” Kristy said. “And we are gonna do whatever it takes to take care of her. If she had injuries that wouldn’t have given her a good quality of life, we would have made a decision for her to not ever be in pain again, but the information we’re receiving is that she will be eventually pain free. She will have to walk with a cart, and we will have to help her for the rest of her life, but we love every one of our dogs and are so dedicated.”
Anyone with information on the vehicle that night around 6 p.m. Sept. 26 near Christ’s Covenant Church is encouraged to come forward to police or to the Schmitts.
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Paul and Kristy Schmitt, who live on East Pierceton Road in Winona Lake, said around 6 p.m. Sept. 26 Paul had gone after their golden retriever, Dexter, who had gotten loose and was running across a parking lot near their home. As Paul returned home safely with Dexter, the couple realized their 8-month-old Yorkshire Terrier, Lucy, was gone.
“So we immediately started looking, and we had about a 2-1/2-hour window of daylight,” Kristy said about their search in their cars, on their bicycles and on foot. It was then, while the couple’s daughter was talking to the neighbors, who were standing outside, that Dexter ran out and, according to the neighbors, a car had stopped and asked the neighbors if they were looking for a dog. The neighbors, not knowing about Lucy, said no. But the occupants of the car told the neighbors that a car up ahead had stopped and put a little dog in their vehicle and drove east.
By the time the Schmitts got this information, Kristy said they had no idea what to do. What they did do was hang a missing sign on their mailbox with Lucy’s picture, took out an ad in the Times-Union and created a social media page to help get people’s eyes looking.
Time passed, and although Kristy said the prayers and kind remarks and suggestions of people on social media have been a blessing, she now believes it wasn’t social media that helped them reunite with Lucy.
It was Lucy’s microchip.
On Monday, Kristy got a call around 4 p.m. from Lucy’s microchip company and informed her that Lucy needed immediate emergency services. Kristy called the number she was given and spoke with Fort Wayne’s animal control. She was told that Lucy was found by a passerby in the alley behind Panera Bread on Coliseum Boulevard. That caller told animal control “a little dog was dragging its back legs in the alley and needs help,” Kristy said.
“That is who got the ball rolling,” she said. Her dog was then taken by animal control to the an emergency animal clinic on the northside of Fort Wayne, where staff checked for a microchip. That microchip was the key to reuniting the Schmitts with Lucy, miles away. “We are so indebted to all those people who acted so quickly on her behalf,” she said.
Kristy immediately went to Fort Wayne and had to take Lucy to the small animal clinic teaching hospital at Purdue in West Lafayette. It was there that she learned Lucy is paralyzed from the mid-section of her body to the back due to some type of blunt force trauma that had occurred at least two days prior to her being found. Her back leg femur is broken badly, and the Schmitt’s have decided not to put Lucy through the trauma to repair it, because since she is paralyzed she feels no pain from it anyway.
Lucy is currently being fitted for a wheelchair and will be coming back home to her Warsaw family possibly as early as this afternoon. She will suffer from constant urinary tract infections, Kristy said, and the Schmitts will have to express her bladder for her for the rest of her life.
The Schmitts believe Lucy was dumped in the alley in Fort Wayne, but by whom they do not know.
“We drove the area yesterday, and so we do not believe there is any way she carried herself, injured that way, by herself. She had to have been taken there and dropped off,” Kristy said.
Finding out who is responsible is something the Schmitts have vowed to get to the bottom of. They’re certain that since the alleyway is in a business district, there must be cameras. However, their bigger focus is on raising awareness about the importance of microchipping pets.
The chips are the size of a grain of rice, cost $30 at the Animal Welfare League of Kosciusko County and are put in with a needle under the pet’s skin above the shoulder blade, AWL Director Sally Scott said.
“Most people think, as we did, that a chip is almost like a tracking device,” Kristy said. “It is only useful at this point in time if someone checks the chip.”
Scott explained that the chip includes a 15-digit special ID number that is associated with the pet owner’s information, such as their name, address and phone number. It is important that the owner register the chip, Scott said, and keep that information up to date if they move or get a new phone number.
Having that chip registered allows places like the AWL or veterinary offices to immediately see the owner’s information. If the chip isn’t registered, Scott said sometimes she is able to track down the place business where the chip was inserted and try to go from there to get identifying information.
“I think it’s so important. Many of our reclaims are because the animal was microchipped and we were able to contact the owner instead of the pet waiting at the shelter for weeks on end, and in the meantime we are scouring lost and found pages,” Scott said. “It’s very quick and very easy to do. It is well worth being able if your pet ever did get lost, the chances of it being found and returned to you are quite high.”
For the Schmitts, they now have a GPS tracker collar on Dexter. His exact location can be viewed through an app on Paul’s phone.
In the meantime, the Schmitts hope that raising awareness for microchipping and tracker collars will help deter any people who think about dognapping.
“Our hope is that Lucy is going to be pain free and she’s going to live a long, happy life,” Kristy said. “And we are gonna do whatever it takes to take care of her. If she had injuries that wouldn’t have given her a good quality of life, we would have made a decision for her to not ever be in pain again, but the information we’re receiving is that she will be eventually pain free. She will have to walk with a cart, and we will have to help her for the rest of her life, but we love every one of our dogs and are so dedicated.”
Anyone with information on the vehicle that night around 6 p.m. Sept. 26 near Christ’s Covenant Church is encouraged to come forward to police or to the Schmitts.
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