NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Niagara SPCA plans to reunite a Florida dog with his owner, after they were separated for three years.
The dog in question is a little fella named Chacka.
He has had quite the journey after being found abandoned and brought to the Niagara SPCA.
Thanks to his microchip, the animal shelter was able to contact his owner who lives in the Sunshine State, and they are working to get this little guy back home.
Niagara County SPCA executive director, Amy Lewis said, "A wonderful member from our community named Becky, who agreed to let Chacka travel with her. She will be flying out of Niagara Falls on Sunday, and delivering Chacka to his mom Sunday evening."
A microchip, which is about the size of a grain of rice, is inserted beneath an animal's skin.
Organizations like the SPCA, can use microchip scanners to find out information about where a found animal is from.
Lewis explained microchipping can save critical time when it comes to reuniting a pet with its family.
Lewis said, "As long as your information doesn't change, that microchip links your animal to you for life, whether he gets lost down the street or whether he gets lost 1,200 miles from home. That's the ticket back to the owner for these animals."
Many people think the standard microchip tracks pets but it actually does not do such a thing.
It only carries data in them, of information of the animal and the owner.
Lewis explained, "We come across a lot of microchips that the animal is microchipped but the chip is never registered. So, when we adopt animals from our facility, that comes with an automatic registration, but if you're doing it privately through your vet, it's not automatically registered. Some microchips require that you call the microchip company and make sure that you register your information to make it active."
The center has had two recent cases within the past two weeks, where microchips have reunited with their owners.
In Erie County, the SPCA was able to reunite a cat to its Buffalo family, thanks to microchipping.
"We have had recent cases within the past two weeks, where microchips have reunited pets with owners, and pets with great distances. Who would ever imagine a dog from Texas would go missing for a month and would end up in Lewiston, New York? Just last night, Chacka came in and his microchip lead to his mom in Florida. He had been missing for three years."
NOTE: It was originally reported the Chihuahua's name was spelled "Shaka", according to the Niagara SPCA, but according to his owner, Devonna Bolden, his name is spelled "Chacka". It was also learned afterwards that he had been missing for four years, and not three, according to Bolden.
