Athena, beagle lab mix

Microchip helps dog find owners after 2 years
Kathrine Schulze
June 18, 2014

Early one morning two years ago, a dog named Athena took advantage of an open gate. She did not return to her Lafayette backyard.

Rachel and Kevin Rotz were reunited this week with Athena “This dog could have been home two years ago,” a kennel official says, because Athena had a microchip.

Owners Rachel and Kevin Rotz were frantic. They hung up signs and posted Athena’s story on social media.

Calls from people saying they saw a dog matching Athena’s description — beagle and chocolate Labrador retriever mix — on South 26th Street gave the Rotz family some basis of where she was.

“We went out every day for the first five weeks,” Rachel Rotz said. But eventually the calls stopped, and they assumed the worst.

Last month, a call came in to the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office of a stray running around Woods Edge Mobile Home Park, north of the Rotz’s home.

On June 5, an animal control officer caught up with Athena and took her to Crystal Creek Boarding Kennel. There it was discovered that she wasn’t an abandoned dog, but a lost one.

A microchip implanted under her skin and readable by electronic scanner identified her owners.

Athena stayed at Crystal Creek while she waited for Rachel and Kevin to come home from vacation.

When the Rotzes received the news that Athena was not only alive, but at a shelter, they were shocked.

After talking it over and getting approval from their landlord, Rachel and Kevin took Athena back home Monday.

Amid concern that Athena might not get along with the family’s other dog, they’ll be introduced slowly.

“We’re just glad we have her back,” Kevin said.

Nita Pollock, co-owner of Crystal Creek, said the reunion between the Rotz family and Athena went well.

Athena didn’t stay still from the moment she was let into the office where the reunion took place. She ran between Kevin and Rachel, stopping to sniff out the rest of the room, but always coming back to them.

Kevin adjusted Athena’s collar — the same collar from two years ago, now faded red but intact.

“I’ve got you a new bandana,” Rachel said, pulling out a black bandana filled with butterflies of every color.

“I’d say they were pretty enthusiastic, and the dog was really enthusiastic,” Pollock said.

After Athena ran away two years ago, Pollock said she thinks someone found her and, instead of contacting a shelter, kept her as their own.

“Just because they found it on the side of the road doesn’t mean it’s their dog,” she said.

People who find an animal, Pollock said, should notify a police department within that jurisdiction as well as shelters in that district, and take it to a shelter or a veterinary clinic to have it scanned for a microchip.

“This dog could have been home two years ago,” Pollock said.

Source: http://www.jconline.com/story/news/2014/06/18/microchip-helps-dog-find-owners-years/10809575/