By Robin GOLDSWORTHY

During the day, Pam Fernicola is the office manager at Our Lady of Lourdes in Tujunga. But in her other life she is Super Pam, defender of animals.

Why? She microchips pets.

For nearly 11 years, Fernicola has been making sure lost pets are reunited with their owners by providing a mobile microchipping service.

This service began after she suffered the loss of her cat.

“My cat went missing and, like everyone does, I put up signs and contacted shelters,” she recalled. After several days and dozens of phone calls, a shelter worker said they had a cat that fit Fernicola’s description of Nugget but she had to be put to sleep because she was injured.

“If she had been chipped I could have been reunited with her and taken her to our vet,” Fernicola said.

She immediately became an advocate for microchipping and started Mobile Pet Microchipping, a service to protect pets.

“Microchipping is vital,” Fernicola said. “You wouldn’t believe the number of pets that are not only lost but are stolen. A microchipped pet is much more difficult to transfer (or sell) to someone else.”

According to Fernicola one out of three dogs go missing in their lifetime. Many times they wind up in a pound or shelter and often these facilities have microchip scanners. If the pet has been microchipped, it can be easily reunited with its owners.

“If the owner has been responsible,” Fernicola added.

 That responsibility includes making sure the proper microchip paperwork is filed with an appropriate agency that can facilitate reuniting the pet with its owner. As part of the service she provides, in addition to microchipping the pet Fernicola files the paperwork with a reliable service. In her case, she uses the American Kennel Club Reunite.

  The chip, which is no bigger than a grain of rice, is quickly inserted in the skin beneath the animal’s shoulder blades. It has a 15-digit number on it. If the microchipped pet goes missing and is found, the person who found it can have the animal’s chip scanned. The number is displayed and can be entered into petmicrochiplookup.org. The agency that has the pet owner’s information will contact the pet owner to tell them the happy news that their pet has been located.

Fernicola warned against using “freebie” websites to register pets as owner privacy is not always protected.

Which is why using her service is beneficial.

She will go to pets’ homes and microchip them there and also file the paperwork.

“The pets are completely at ease,” she said. “The owners are also able to watch the process.”

And then they can rest assured that if the unexpected happens and their pet goes missing – whether dog, cat, horse or ferret (to name a few) – the chance of being reunited has been greatly increased. 

 For more information, visit www.chippit.org.

  chippit.org, microchip