Category Archives: Events

Events LDI will be attending.

Lost Dogs Illinois, Realtors to the Rescue Join Forces at Chicago’s 2016 “Bark in the Park” Event

RTTR and LDI Volunteers Bark in the Park

RTTR and LDI Volunteers
Bark in the Park

Lost Dogs Illinois and Realtors to the Rescue of Homeless Animals teamed to offer free microchip scanning at Chicago’s annual “Bark in the Park” celebration to benefit the Anti-Cruelty Society. Scores of “Bark” dogs and their owners, including many who walked the official 5K course on Lake Shore Drive, stopped by the LDI/RTTR booth to verify that their dogs’ chips were active and properly registered.

“One of the challenges of microchipping is that there are now at least 15 companies offering the product, and not everyone knows which company produced their pet’s chip,” LDI founder Susan Taney said.

“In addition, shelters, pet stores, veterinary clinics, animal hospitals – everyone has a different policy for registering the chip,” Taney continued. “Some will complete the paperwork and submit the registration for the pet owner. Some rely on the owner submitting the paperwork. Some chip companies don’t even keep track of to whom the chip is registered. So it’s always good for a pet owner to know exactly what he or she has purchased, and how it can help a lost pet return home.”

Writing down the chip ID number for the dog's owner.

Writing down the chip ID number for the dog’s owner.

Booth visitors who took advantage of the free service thanked LDI and RTTR repeatedly for offering this kind of help. Even better, a number of dog owners said the service reminded them they needed to update the contact information on their chip registries.

Getting ready to scan a dog.

Getting ready to scan a dog.

“We changed our dog’s name after we adopted her, but we forgot to contact the chip company,” one woman said. “We’ll do that right away now.”

“We’ve moved recently but the chip still has our old address, in New York!” another woman said. “Wow, we’ve got to change that fast.”

Taney and RTTR member Suzy Thomas indicated afterwards they would like their two organizations to collaborate on similar events in the future that can raise the public’s awareness of the importance of microchipping their pets and making sure they wear ID tags with correct contact information.

“It’s all about doing what you can to protect the human-animal bond,” Taney said.

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Preserving the human/animal bond.

by Lydia Rypcinski

Lost Dogs Illinois, Chicago Police 16th District Co-Host Successful Microchip/ID Tag Clinic

Collage

Collage

Dog and cat owners from across Chicagoland took advantage of the free microchip/ID tag clinic offered by Lost Dogs Illinois and the Chicago Police Department on Chicago’s Northwest Side April 9, 2016.

The three-hour clinic, held at the city’s 16th Police District headquarters in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, resulted in 121 dogs and cats getting chipped and receiving ID tags engraved with the pet’s name and owner’s phone number.

“This is like buying an insurance policy to keep your pet safe,” said Kathy Foley, who brought her rescued Rottweiler, Storm.

Logan Square residents Kestelle Wiersma and Scott Foster brought their cat, Elphaba, and dog, Boxcar.

“My brother’s dog got out last spring,” Wiersma said. “He found it in the next day or so, but that fear – we didn’t want to go through that if ours ever got loose, so that’s why we’re here today.”

“William” brought his Pug/Cocker Spaniel mix, Lucy, with him. He said his friend, a Chicago police officer, called him that morning to let him know what was happening.

“I’m glad she did,” William said. “My family would be devastated if Lucy ever got out and we had no way to track her to get her back.”

Lori and Courtney Jensen drove into the city from north suburban Deerfield with their Chihuahuas, Tigger and Missy. They learned about the clinic on the LDI Facebook page.

“They [Tigger and Missy] try to run away a lot,” Courtney confessed.

“We were at a friend’s house when the UPS guy arrived there,” Lori said. “Tigger went running when our friend opened the front door.”

The Pacheco family – Luis, Sonnet and children – from nearby Portage Park came with their 9-month-old pittie, Samson, and 150-lb. Great Dane, Sasha.

“We saw a flyer at the neighborhood library,” Sonnet said. “We wanted to do this because Samson is a puppy, and puppies like to run. We wanted to make sure he would come back home if he got out.”

Shari Grassmuck, a Chicago Fire Department paramedic who lives near Midway Airport, brought her rescue Dutch Shepherd, Marmaduke. Grassmuck found him “playing with a rock in a mud puddle” one night while on duty on the South Side.

“I think a free microchip event is a wonderful idea,” she said. “A lot of dogs and cats are brought to the fire stations. So many animals get lost, and people either don’t know they can chip them or can’t afford to. “

“If it’s free, they will come,” said 38th Ward Alderman Ald. Nick Sposato. “As elected officials, we can tap our social media networks to get word out about events like this. It makes it easier for people to do right by their pets – there’s no appointment time, there’s no cost to them.”

Sharon Rolek drove an hour from the far Southeast Side neighborhood of Hegewisch to get three cats chipped and ID’d.

“We don’t have anything like this on the South Side,” said Rolek, who learned about the clinic in an email from Tree House Humane Society. “I hope this event inspires someone to do this out my way.”

Rolek may get her wish soon. Police Lt. John Garrido, one of the linchpins of the April 9 event, said that two other city police districts – the 5th on the South Side and the 25th on the Far North Side – have contacted him about holding microchip clinics.

“If there is a need for this kind of service in this area – and there obviously is – then there is a need in every area of the city,” Garrido said. “Sometimes it’s just an issue of cost, and that can be helped through sponsorship of events like this.”

Garrido explained that as the afternoon watch commander for the 16th District, “I see so many dogs that get out and are brought to our station. I just can’t see them getting put down because we can’t find their owners.

“We have a large social media network in this area and post and share pictures of all the dogs brought to the station,” Garrido added. “We figure we get about 60 percent of them back to their owners.”

Lost Dogs Illinois provided the ID tags and engraving machine, which it was able to purchase through a generous donation from Chicago-based Realtors to the Rescue along with other donations.

Dr. Peter Sakas of Niles (IL) Animal Hospital and staff and volunteers from Chicago Animal Care and Control supervised clinical and administrative activities.

A little chihuahua protesting the chip implant.

A little chihuahua protesting the chip implant.

“We were very pleased with today’s turnout,” CACC Administrative Services Officer Sue Cappello said. “The 16th District did a great job of setting the event up for us, and we look forward to working with them again.”

Other event sponsors included Aldermen Margaret Laurino (39th Ward) and Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward); Illinois State Senator John Mulroe (10th District); The Garrido Network; The Gladstone Park Neighborhood Association and the Chamber of Commerce; Delightful Pastries; Midwest Dog People; The Puppy Mill Project; Earth Rated Poop Bags; Allstate Insurance: Jaime Morales; RAS Communications; and the UPS Store @Milwaukee/Devon.

To view more pictures of the clinic, click here

By Lydia Rypcinski

Free Health Fair – Englewood Area (Chicago) – April 2nd

What happens when a City funded animal control (City of Chicago Animal Care and Control), notfor profit organization (Lost Dogs Illinois) and a professional hockey team (Chicago Wolves) join together?  They put on a Free Health Fair!  Over 300 residents dogs and cats received FREE microchips, vaccines and ID engraved tags. Working together keeps families together!

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Bella’s Meet and Greet at Bentley’s Corner Barkery in Long Grove

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Bella’s meet & greet at Bentley’s Corner Barkery in Long Grove

Bella’s owners were overwhelmed by the whole experience of her being lost and even more by the support of LDI, Bella’s rescue organization, friends and mostly complete strangers that helped them bring their girl home. They wanted to try and pay-it-forward. They became passionate about getting the word out to other dog owners to help them benefit from mistakes that they had made, as well as benefiting from things they had learned that successfully brought their girl home safe and sound.

Once Bella was back home and settled in, they set up a meet & greet at Bentley’s Corner Barkery in Long Grove and invited everyone who supported them during their journey. They asked the rescue they adopted Bella from, Foster2Home, to be their guest and bring some of their adoptable dogs.

Lost Dogs Illinois was invited to attend and pass out information on the proper way to recover a scared dog. LDI did scans to check microchips of any dogs in attendance. It is important to periodically check to see if the microchip is still working and to see if the chip has begun to migrate and make sure it can still easily be found.  Also that the chip is registered to you.

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LDI Volunteers, Jackie & Maggie, providing free microchip scans.

A good time was had by all and more importantly, more of the community was reached and made aware of the resources available to them if they ever found or lost their dog.