Skip The Cat ID Tag?

Don't have a cat ID tag for your indoor cat? Don't think you need one? You might want to rethink your position on tags and collars after you read these stories.

Some cat parents who have indoor only cats don't collar and tag them. The assumption, of course, is that you don't need a tag for a cat that never goes outdoors.

But, is that really the case? What if your cat gets out by accident? What if your cat ends up far from home? Don't think it could happen?

Consider the story of Emily. In 2005, Emily, a short haired tabby from Wisconsin ended up in France. She ended up taking a ride she didn't want and was transported first by truck and then by ship in a cargo container. Luckily, she didn't die of starvation or dehydration during the trip.

She garnered quite a bit of media attention and was flown back to the US business class. Without her ID tag, she never would have made it back to her owners, Donny and Lesly McElhiney.

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Emily had unwanted travel help for her long journey. But there are many stories about cats who have traveled under their own power, and displayed the ability to find their way home when moved to a new area or left behind while traveling.

Some cats have been left behind, and somehow found their way to the new home, even though they had never been there before.

These stories often seem impossible. The cats would have had to travel hundreds of miles or more, and how could a cat know where their owner had moved to. Some may be just tall tales, but some can be verified.

Some of the feline homing ability has been attributed to a cat's sense of time, or perhaps sensitivity to differences in the earth's magnetic field, or even possible psychic or paranormal abilities.

Years ago, a co-worker of mine, BR, had an indoor/outdoor cat. BR and his cat moved to another town about 15 miles away. Shortly after the move, his cat disappeared. He searched for the cat but after a couple of weeks and then a month had gone by it seemed like it was a lost cause. The cat was gone.

About three months after the cat first disappeared, however, BR got a call from one of his old neighbors in the town where he used to live. The ex-neighbor said that he had located BR's cat!

BR was reunited with his cat and brought him to his new home. BR's cat obviously traveled on a purposeful journey with a destination in mind (his old home).

This next story has appeared on websites and in at least two books, including For the Love of Cats by Dena Harris. There are slight variations on the story, but Sugar was a cream Persian who lived in California with her family, who decided to pick up and move.

Depending upon which story you read, either the cat was afraid of car travel, or the family started out with her in the car, but she was too frightened to make the trip.

Either way, Sugar was left behind with a neighbor and the family made the trip to Oklahoma to their new home. Fifteen days later, the neighbors wrote to say that Sugar had vanished and couldn't be found anywhere.

Fourteen months later, Sugar's original owner was greeted by a rather weathered Persian cat, who jumped on her shoulder. Upon close inspection, it turned out that the cat was indeed Sugar, as identified by a scar on her hind leg from a traffic accident years before.

Depending upon who is telling the story, Sugar found her original owner doing the wash or in the barn and jumped through an open window, or her owner was outside. Some versions also say that Sugar was recognizable by a deformed hip bone.

Either way, the cat made a 1500 mile trip across desert and over the Rocky Mountains.

There's also the story of Gizmo, who was separated from her owner, Laura Smith for 8 years. This story appeared on the TV show, Animal Miracles, hosted by Alan Thicke.

Gizmo didn't like people very much, but bonded strongly with Laura. Gizmo disappeared in 1991 during a back yard barbeque, and all attempts to find him failed.

In 1999, Laura and her husband were on their way to an appliance store about 40 miles from their home in Texas. They needed to replace their clothes dryer, which had just broken.

They decided to stop at a garage sale, which had a dryer for sale. To her surprise, Laura noticed a cat in the garage of the house. It was Gizmo! Laura pleaded with the owner and was able to bring Gizmo back home.

If Gizmo had been wearing a cat ID tag, he likely would not have had to wait 8 years to see his owner again.

What about microchipping?

Even if your cat is microchipped, AVMA recommends a cat ID tag and collar anyway on their microchipping FAQ...

"Microchips are great for permanent identification that is tamper-proof, but nothing replaces a collar with up-to-date identification tags." Emily, had she not been wearing a cat ID tag, but instead been microchipped with a non-ISO chip, might not have been reunited with her family.

Skip the cat ID tag? Maybe not.

Talk to your vet about the pros and cons of microchips. You can buy lost pet recovery ID tags and break away collars for cats at pettags.com.

Do you have a story about a cat (possibly yours?) who found itself on a journey? Let us know in the house cats section.

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