HOURS OF heartache turned into joy for the Harris family of Kingstanding, near Birmingham – thanks to a microchip.

The chip, distributed by York-based Animalcare, was scanned after their dog, Jess, was found and taken to a nearby veterinary centre where staff scanned her to see if she was identichipped. Thanks to the microchip, the clinic were able to contact the Harris family to let them know Jess was safe, and where she could be collected.

Gill Harris and her children Greg, Sophie and Daniel with Jess.

‘When we first got Jess, we decided that when she was old enough, we would get her identichipped.’ said Gill Harris. ‘We had previously had a dog that kept running off, which caused us a great deal of worry so we thought that having Jess microchipped would ensure if she did go missing it would be less stressful.

‘On this occasion, the boys had left the gate open and she managed to get out. Jess isn’t used to being out on the road and she would be quite scared and not understand about traffic, we were so relieved when we got the call to say they had jess at the surgery.’