[Dailydrool] A tag with the dog's name, address, and phone number

[Valerie via Dailydrool]

My heart is beating a mile a minute.  Just got a call, "I have your dog".
(Huh? I did not realize I was missing a dog.)  "Mariah on Eluna Street?"
Yes--definitely my dog.  "I'll walk her down to your house". I leap out the front door and through the gate, which at this point seems latched, and there and behold walking proudly down the street on a leash with a neighbor I have not met is Miss Mariah. She is very clever. My husband has been bringing tile in from the carport, and on one trip must have left the gate unlatched for just a few minutes and in those few minutes, a
Mariah must have seized upon the opportunity to take herself on a walk and go exploring.

 If wooden doors in our house are not closed fully and latched, Mariah can usually nose them open and enter. It never occurs to Mila to even try such things. and I have watched Mariah hold a Tupperware container between her two front paws and delicately pry the top off. My husband calls her "our little velociraptor". Remember Jurassic Park: "Clever girl!".....

Mariah also clearly "decides" between alternatives. If she is outside at the far gate (and Mila is with her barking at something),  we will call the dogs inside and give them treats to stop Mila's barking. Both will bolt across the lawn to the ramp when called.  Mila will come straight in. mariah will pause, look back at the gate, look at the front door, back at the gate--and sometimes she will come in, other times she will return to the gate. Similarly, when it's time for the evening walk, we'll call the dogs. Both will come running. but very occasionally, if Mariah was working on a deer antler, she will look at the front door, look back, and then return to the antler, passing on the walk. There is no doubt at all to me that she thinks, figures things out, makes decisions, and even tries to teach her less talented peers (she is clearly teing to teach Gucci the frou frou dog next door how to slip out of his yard and go around to our front gate, but Gucci just can't get it.

Anyway, I'm writing to encourage folks, in addition to microchipping, to have your dog wear an ID tag. we have ours on a collar which is quite loose, almost like a necklace, so that if dogs are wrestling or running through a bush, the dog can back out of the collar if it gets caught on something rather than getting strangled by accident. You can't really attach a leash and expect the dog not to back out of the collar, so we use a slip leash to walk the dogs. But I am so grateful to have Mariah captured and returned. (Once, in his younger days, Commander Bo escaped and was returned, riding in a police squad car, a kindly police officer having picked him up).  Val of Hawaii, Mariah the clever, and Mila  the good girl houseguest