Rocky has always liked to sit in the front yard of our home and watch the neighborhood in action. We rescued him 3 years ago. Rocky is such a lazy boy and never seemed to be a wanderer. He had never tried to run away or go visiting the neighbors prior to July 4.

That day seemed to be no different than any other. He was sitting on the front porch enjoying the view. A half hour later we went to go check on him. His harness was still tethered to the porch, stretched as far as it would go, but no Rocky.

We immediately began searching the neighborhood, which is near the intersection of 2 very busy roads. No luck. We contacted all the shelters, rescue groups and online lost dog sites. We also reported him missing on the HomeAgain website. We posted over 250 flyers on doors, community bulletin boards, telephone poles and anywhere else we could put a flyer. We searched an average 10 hours a day for 3 days. We received a phone call that he had been seen, but the caller said she couldn't remember what day it had been.

Finally, I received a call from our local shelter saying they had Rocky. This call was made around 9:15 am. When we picked Rocky up at the shelter we asked when he had been brought in and they said just after 9 am. They processed him into the facility and scanned for a microchip right away. They found his chip, checked ownership file, and called us up. From the time he was brought to the shelter until we were notified was less than 15 minutes. Thanks to his microchip he was returned to us in a very short time. I'm so glad all 5 of my dogs have the chip- just in case…

Posted By: Gary, Alexandria, VA - 7/8/2010
Pet Name: Rocky  Species: Dog  Breed: Shih Tzu  Sex: Male