Beryl Edwards was overjoyed when her microchipping company contacted her to inform her that her cat Fred, missing since the summer of 2022, had been found.
Then her joy turned to frustration as the company asked her to confirm a change in Fred’s ownership.
“Can you imagine the range of emotions from, ‘Fred! He’s alive, he’s OK’ to ‘transfer of ownership? What’s this all about?’” the UK woman told the BBC earlier this week.
A rep from Identibase told Edwards the company couldn’t provide any information on the person or people who currently had Fred due to data privacy laws, so Edwards called the police, who handled it swiftly.
“I’m totally over the moon,” Edwards told the BBC on Wednesday. “I can’t praise Market Drayton police enough, they got on to the case on Sunday, contacted the people on Monday, and by 10:45 on Monday evening they brought Fred home.”
The police are able to access data the public cannot if it pertains to an investigation, and law enforcement had said earlier they considered Fred’s predicament a case of theft. It’s not clear if they charged the other party with a crime.
As for Fred, Edwards said he’s happy to be home with her and his litter mate, Gino.
“He’s roaming around the house, obviously he’s kept in doors,” she said. “He’s playing, he’s eating, having lots of cuddles, lots of love, he’s great.”
UK legislators recently passed a law that will require all cat owners to have their felines microchipped by June 10, 2024. Advocates say the law will greatly increase the chances that missing cats are reunited with their people. It will also help hold people to account if they abandon their pets, and will help authorities settle questions of ownership in cases where it’s disputed. Edwards said she’d like to see changes to the way information is shared as well so people in her situation can more easily resolve their problems.
Pain In The Bud 
All cats and dogs should be chipped
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Chips were already required for dogs in the UK, so this law is just bringing cats into the fold. I think it’s a good idea.
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My Lord, this is good news. It’s hard on the other people who Fred had moved in with, I assume they looked after him well, but as with all cats, he will be good back with his original servants. Maybe Identibase can encourage them to adopt from a local shelter as part of their policy in this situation, maybe holding a database of local shelters that they can give to people in this situation. ( they may already do this tbh I don’t know) With Bertie he has multiple homes ( even his own whats app group) so we can keep track of him as any vets bills are ours – he’s chipped to us, as is Bella. I would think we all agree in the UK that Cat chipping is a good law to enforce for precisely this situation – the same thing has actually happened before as our cats go outside considerably more than in the US,
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You have no clue how many cats were given back to owners because of microchips. Just read a story a cat that was missing for 8 years. It was microchipped and family broke down crying. Ran out door by accident.
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Agreed. I think any reasonable cat lover would want a cat to go back to his or her original family, knowing how much the kitty is loved and missed. It’s hard to say goodbye, but best for the cat and the cat’s people.
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Love the story, love that Fred is home. Cats HAVE TO BE MICROCHIPPED? Ugh. Hope that doesn’t happen in the USA.
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Rescue groups i know microchip themselves before adopting. Saves lives.
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Sorry guys, WordPress has been eating comments again. I have no idea what the hell is going on. Just wanted to let everyone know so if your comment doesn’t appear, I’m not censoring you or anything, it’s just that WordPress is being funky.
If you are having problems, drop me an email and I’ll mention it to support. Thanks and again, apologies for the glitches.
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It keeps telling me that my comment is a duplicate! NOT SO!
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That’s a quirk of WordPress. It takes a second for WordPress to acknowledge that your comment was entered, so a lot of people hit the submit button twice because they think it didn’t go through the first time. I’ve done that quite a few times myself without realizing it.
I’ve considered changing the comments so they don’t need approval, but by requiring approval I’m able to filter out trolls and people who think it’s funny to post messages about harming cats.
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Grrrr! All claws out to people who post about hurting cats!!!
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