Never underestimate the power of a microchip. For the Griffith family, their black Labrador is back home after he was lost for three long years, because the pet was microchipped when the family first got him.
Kurmy lived in King, N.C., but three years ago he jumped his home’s fence and ran away. The Giffiths looked for him but never found him, and after months of empty searches, they gave up all hope of ever being reunited with their loved pet.
At the beginning of August, a pet owner from Pfafftown, N.C., found the dog and took him to Pfafftown Animal Hospital. There, he was scanned for a microchip and thanks to it, Kurmy was reunited with his family.
When the hospital called the Giffiths, they couldn’t believe Kurmy was alive.
“We were like, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, it’s the microchip,’” Donielle Griffith told My Fox 8.
Microchips have been reuniting lost pets with their owners more than ever. Guilford County Shelter executive director Marsha Williams said that they used to have a 1 percent redemption rate with microchipped dogs. The number was so low because most pet owners never activated the chips or forgot to update the information whenever they moved or changed phone numbers. Today however, the Guilford County Shelter has a 98 percent redemption rate and this is because pet owners today are more proactive about keeping microchips’ information up to date.
The Griffiths family is complete once again and this was thanks to their pet’s microchip.