Scrub, the pet cat of Jennifer's, was found! It got lost five years ago. Jennifer looked for it everywhere but failed each time. She thought Scrub would never come back. But one day she got a call from an animalshelter(庇护所) and was told they had found Scrub!
How did they know Scrub belonged to Jennifer? How did they know Jennifer's phone number? All the information was available because of the microchip, a very small computerchip(薄片). It was placed under Scrub's skin many years earlier.
The microchip is usually placed under the skin of an animal's shoulder to keep its ID number. Once the chip is in place, the pet does not feel it anymore. When lost pets are brought to animal shelters, people there use a special tool to look for the microchip and read the ID number on it, then they'll call the microchip company to match the number to the information of the pet's owner. This is how the shelter was able to tell Jennifer that they had found Scrub.
Microchips have helped thousands of owners get their lost pets back. In New York, a dog named Roxy was missing for months. Then a woman found her on a busy street in New Jersey. No one knows how the dog got to a different state. However, thanks to her microchip, Roxy was soon returned to her grateful owner.
In 2008, a couple got their cat George back after he had disappeared 13 years earlier! When George got lost, the couple tried everything to find him. They visited animal shelters every day for six months, made posters and even offered a $500reward(酬金). As years went by, they thought George would never be back till they got the call from an animal shelter. Without the microchip, the cat would never be able to come home again.
Microchips can not only work for a pet's whole life but help lost pets no matter how far they've been away from home. This is why microchips may be just the thing to help bring missing pets back home.
