The microchip embedded in 12-year-old Saimin, an 81⁄2-pound rat terrier, made a touching New Year’s reunion possible nearly eight years after the dog disappeared.
Krista Hodges, a sociology lecturer at the University of Hawaii and Saimin’s owner, said she headed straight to the Hawaiian Humane Society on New Year’s Day after getting a call from the organization that a small dog named Saimin registered to her had been dropped off at the shelter.
"It was a great way to start the new year," Hodges said. "He was an old friend that was never forgotten."
The Hawaiian Humane Society reunited Saimin with Hodges after he was surrendered to the organization by a person who had been taking care of him for the past four or five years, said Tasha Tanimoto, communications officer for the Humane Society. Tanimoto and Hodges do not know where Saimin might have been before that.
With a scan of Saimin’s microchip, Humane Society workers were able to identify Hodges as Saimin’s owner.
"I absolutely support microchipping," Hodges said. "My other two dogs are also microchipped."
The city requires that all dogs 4 months and older wear a county-issued license tag valid for two years that can be purchased at any satellite city hall or the Humane Society. Though not required, Tanimoto said, "Microchips are also important since collars and tags can come off."
Each microchip has an ID number that can be scanned for owners’ contact information that is registered in a database. At the Humane Society, the microchip and procedure cost $15 and do not require an appointment. The chip lasts for life.
The Hawaiian Humane Society said it entered more than 24,000 microchip records into its database last year.
There are 232,640 registered owners and 354,895 registered pets in Oahu’s database. Tanimoto estimates about 83 percent of dogs and cats on Oahu are microchipped, but said owners should remember to keep their contact information updated because "microchips are only as good as the information that’s stored on them."
Microchips have helped reunite many owners and missing pets, Tanimoto said, citing a case similar to Hodges’ last May when another dog missing for eight years was found wandering the streets in Waianae and reunited with its owners after its microchip was scanned.
Though a supporter, Hodges cautions that microchipping, licensing and putting a collar with tags and contact information on a pet won’t guarantee it will find its way home if lost or missing.
"Saimin was still gone eight years," she said.
Saimin disappeared in May 2005 while Hodges was on the mainland and her son was taking care of her two dogs.
"The pain of losing him and not knowing what happened to him, I spent months walking the area I live in just looking at the sides of the road, making sure he wasn’t there," she said. "I looked at all the dogs I saw, I looked at all the dogs at the dog parks. I spent eight years looking for him and praying that somebody had him and was taking care of him.
"If people do find a dog, they should take it to the Humane Society and have it scanned for a chip. These are our babies."
