(Washington County Animal Services / AP)
On April 22nd, just two days after Easter, a Jack Russell Terrier named Gidget went missing from her Pennsylvania home. Where she went and how she survived remains a mystery, but somehow between April and September Gidget made her way across the nation, all the way to Oregon.
Spotted wandering Tualatin, a Portland suburb in September, Gidget was picked up and taken to a pet shelter just south of Portland. She was thin, obviously from difficulty finding food, but was otherwise fairly healthy. A PetLink microchip that had been implanted in Gidget allowed the shelter employees to find and contact her owner.
Unfortunately, Gidget’s owner, who preferred to keep her name private, was unable to pay for the ticket to fly out to Portland and pick up the dog. That’s when the news of Gidget’s journey and situation became national news and attracted an outpouring of support.
It started with an anonymous donor paying for the shelter’s expenses for caring for Gidget, and eventually led to people from all sides of the country offering to pay for her plane ticket. Her return flight was ultimately paid for by PetLink themselves, the company that manufactured the microchip that helped locate Gidget.
Gidget’s story serves as an important reminder of the benefits of getting pets microchipped.