An animal shelter in South Carolina shared some great news to start out the new year, celebrating the reunion of a cat and its owner after four years of separation.
Dorchester Paws, which calls itself “your community animal shelter,” posted an amazingly heartstrings-pulling update to its Facebook page writing that the now-eighteen-year-old cat, Shyla, waa returned to its owner as a result of a microchip that had been implanted several years ago.
“THE POWER OF A MICROCHIP,” the post began. The rest of the thread followed:
Meet Shyla, an 18 year-old cat who went missing 4 YEARS ago!! Shyla is from a shelter in California but no matter where she and her owner moved, her owner always kept information on the microchip up to date. Well the power of a microchip paid off because it was how we found her owner.
To ADD to the story, the owner was about to move a week later!!!!
It was fate.
The post ended by advocating for increased chipping of pets. “Only 2% of cats are microchipped,” it noted. “You never know, microchip your pet today.”
A local ABC affiliate reported that even though the cat was in a shelter in California at the time of its recovery, the owner always “kept information on her microchip up to date.”
ASPCA, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, keeps detailed stats on lost pets. Shyla’s story is remarkable given the sheer volume of lost dogs and cats every year. On its homepage, it notes:
Approximately 6.3 million companion animals enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.1 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cats.
Each year, approximately 920,000 shelter animals are euthanized (390,000 dogs and 530,000 cats).
Approximately 4.1 million shelter animals are adopted each year (2 million dogs and 2.1 million cats).
About 810,000 animals who enter shelters as strays are returned to their owners. Of those, 710,000 are dogs and 100,000 are cats.
In other words, Shyla was just one of over 12 million estimated cats to enter an animal shelter over the course of its four-year absence. During that same time span, over 2 million cats were euthanized.
Perhaps most remarkable of all is that this cat is now 18 years old and survived all of the unknowns during its time away from its longtime owner.
No doubt, both parties are thrilled to be reunited. With all of the dreadful news that garners headlines and attention, this is one story we are happy to write about that has a happy ending.
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