Oh Captain, My Captain!

Before being rescued from the shores of Erie, Pa., Captain the fearless feline, mastered living on his own. So, when Kathy brought him home, she dealt with him escaping through a locked cat door, sneaking into people’s vehicles, and scaling a tree so high it required a local fire department’s ladder to get him down! Captain is indeed a special cat and that is why Kathy had him microchipped with an AKC Reunite microchip by her veterinarian. And it is that very chip that eventually helped bring him home.

Kathy woke up one morning and couldn’t find Captain anywhere. It wasn’t uncommon for him to be out late at night, but he always returned home in the wee hours of the morning eager to sleep in his bed. But when Captain still had not returned, Kathy started to worry and began searching for him. She walked the woods with her dogs, drove around her property, posted his status as lost to a local “Lost and Found” Facebook page, and even alerted local animal shelters and the police department. Three days after Captain disappeared, Kathy remembered to contact AKC Reunite to report him lost.

“When I went to report him lost, I became aware that I HAD NOT registered his microchip with AKC Reunite! I quickly went in and registered it… Within minutes, I received an email, then a text and phone call from AKC Reunite. The woman on the phone was so kind and she reminded me that part of my account includes the [Lost Pet Alert service upgrade], where posters are created for me to put up around town,” said Kathy.

An hour later, Kathy was contacted by AKC Reunite that someone had found Captain! She called the number provided by AKC Reunite and it turned out to be a local humane society that was holding onto Captain. Apparently, he was going from house to house along with several stray cats, begging for food! But when a neighbor noticed that he looked “too groomed to be a stray” she turned him in.

Captain’s microchip was detected immediately, but since he wasn’t registered to AKC Reunite, they couldn’t determine who his owner was. Thankfully, they looked at the local “Lost and Found” Facebook page and saw the Lost Pet Alert poster of Captain! They then contacted AKC Reunite and the rest is history!

“AKC Reunite is such a blessing,” said Kathy. “Captain would most likely have been given a new home and we would never have had any closure on the whole situation. If I had enrolled him right after he was microchipped, he might have been home even sooner! Not all situations have happy endings, but it only takes two seconds to get a microchip in your pet and minutes to set up your registered pet. Make it a priority!”
Thanks to his newly-enrolled microchip, Captain is safely home! But if he ever decides to abandon ship again, at least his microchip is now connected to his owner, so when he’s found the reunion can be that much sooner.