Whether you live in a house, an apartment, in a big city, country or anywhere in between, there are felines living all around you. The lucky ones, live inside with their forever humans, never knowing the scarcity of food, water, or cozy spots for napping. There are working barn cats that earn their keep by catching mice and just being all around cute; there are indoor/outdoor cats, neighborhood cats, and feral cats. Then, there are all the lost and abandoned cats, whose fate is uncertain.

Just recently, my husband and I started getting a visitor at our new house. A beautiful orange and white tabby, healthy and clean, neutered and wearing a flea collar. At first, he would come by once a day and we, being crazy cat people, provided him with water and food, which he gladly gobbled up! Currently, he comes by three times a day, at 7:00 am, 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm. We even start to worry when he does not show up on time! We kept wondering what his story is. Is he somebody’s indoor/outdoor cat, a seasoned and resourceful neighborhood cat, an abandoned or lost cat?

I reached out to my knowledgeable and helpful HAHS friends, and they suggested that I scan our visitor for a microchip. Thanks to Pat, Carol and Beth for providing guidance and the device, so that I could locate our visitor’s home! Yesterday, I had the microchip reader ready and was waiting for him at 7:00 am to serve him breakfast. Alas, he did not show up, nor did he come for lunch! I was starting to worry and was relieved when he finally rolled up for dinner at 7:00 pm! My husband was able to get a scan and hurray he is microchipped!

Following the advice Beth gave me, I looked up his chip number on PetLink but there were no matches. next I tried AAHA’s Microchip Registry Lookup and was notified that the microchip was registered with 24PetWatch. I used 24PetWatch Report a Found Pet service to get information about our visitor. To my surprise, the chip was assigned to a female feline named Polly and was last updated on December 24, 2018!

I filled out the “found pet form” on 24PetWatch and am hoping to hear back. In the meantime, I posted about our visitor on NextDoor and local Facebook groups hoping that someone will claim or recognize him. So far only close calls, but no real leads. Stay tuned!

Feel free to contact us with any feline/canine related questions at [email protected]