Woman grieves over lost rat terrier

WEST VALLEY CITY — Delores King blames herself for losing her Baby Girl.

The 65-year-old widow had just moved in with one of her daughters in West Valley City when her 24-hour companion wandered away. That was about three weeks ago, and Baby Girl is still missing.

King didn't think to update the contact information for her 4-year-old female rat terrier. The registration and shots tags Baby Girl was wearing had expired, and data stored in the microchip under her skin likely was out of date.

King fears that Baby Girl is now living with another family, that the pet that has filled the void in her life since her husband, Roy, died of cancer May 1, 2003, has been in and out of an animal shelter because the owner couldn't be reached.

It's a problem shelter workers encounter far too often, said Karen Bird, who supervises the West Valley Animal Shelter.

Pet owners who neglect to keep their animals' information current, who assume a microchipped pet automatically can be traced to them, make it difficult for shelter workers to reunite them with their lost companions.

"There are many cats and dogs every year that come in with a microchip that for one reason or another we can't find owner information on," Bird said. "It's very sad."

In some cases, the microchip trail dead-ends with veterinarians who no longer have owners' contact information or with the microchip manufacturer because owners never called the company to register the chip.

"People buy a dog or cat from a pet store with the understanding that it's microchipped," Bird said, "but they don't understand that the microchip is not registered."

After canvassing the area where Baby Girl disappeared, King said, she contacted the West Valley shelter about Baby Girl. She was alarmed to learn that a rat terrier matching Baby Girl's white hair with brown and black markings had been in and out of the shelter.

But that dog, it turned out, was a neutered male.

"I feel bad for (King) and I feel bad for the dog," Bird said. "I just don't think it ever came here to our shelter."

That doesn't mean Baby Girl didn't end up at another animal shelter in the Salt Lake Valley, she said.

"You don't know what people are going to do when they find an animal," Bird said.