Microchip helps bring stray cat home

Sue Lawrence, an animal rescuer, wants to spread an important message from a stray cat she named Alexander the Great: Identification chips pay off.

A microchip that even the cat's owner didn't know he had brought the 10-year-old feline back to its home after wandering miles away and nearly starving to death.

As Lawrence recalled the story, Alexander didn't look too great when he ended up with her for foster care.

"He had short hair, black and very matted," she said. "He weighed maybe four pounds. He had no body fat - completely emaciated."

According to Lawrence, the stray passed through three sets of compassionate hands on his way to her foster home. He was first found in January during subzero temperatures in the Rose Crossing area.

"He was very hungry and meowing," she said.

Lawrence took in the cat, as she had many other animals during the 12 years that she has served as a rescuer. She also works occasionally as a veterinary technician for Great Northern Veterinary Center.

Her training led her to first have the cat tested for feline AIDS and leukemia. When he came up negative, Lawrence took him home to convalesce.

"I fed him lots and lots," she said.

Lawrence knew the cat needed a lot more body weight before she could find him a new home. After five or six weeks, she began trying to place him.

She took him to Petco to shop for prospective parents. A couple of people took an interest but no one stepped forward to complete an adoption.

About a week after she put up posters, a woman in Whitefish called to find out if the cat was her missing black feline. Her first question was, "Has he been checked for a microchip?"

"Because I was the last of four people in the rescue, I didn't know the answer to that question," Lawrence said.

Lawrence immediately took the cat to Alpine Animal Hospital where Alexander the Great was scanned. The Alpine clinic, which installs Avid chips, scans lost pets for free.

"They scanned him and, lo and behold, he had a microchip," she said. "But it didn't match the lady in Whitefish."

The scan produced a number that Lawrence then ran through Avid to find the owner. She was told that wasn't an Avid identification number but the firm gave her the phone number for a competitor, Home Again.

"They gave me a name, address and phone number in San Diego," she said. "When I called it had been disconnected."

Lawrence didn't give up. She placed ads in local newspapers asking Ken Ford, the listed owner of the stray black cat, to call her.

It took only a week for Marianne Gardiner of Kalispell to call and say those magic words.

"I believe you have my cat."

Gardiner's mother had seen the ad and recognized her grandson's name. She immediately called her daughter, who had taken over the care of Ken's cat Lukas, named after actor Jean-Luc Picard.

Gardiner said that she didn't even know that her son had Lukas "chipped." She took the cat when her son went off to college. Subsequently, she moved with her pets from San Diego to Kalispell.

According to Gardiner, the cat-astrophic chain of events began last November when she agreed to house-sit a friend's dog without first checking with Lukas.

"He freaked out and ran away," she said. "It was right in the freezing cold. It was just awful."

After an exhaustive search, Gardiner had to leave town for several months. She remembers the surprising call she got in March from her mother about her son's name in the advertisement.

The reunion with her cat at Lawrence's house was memorable. She went into the bedroom and sat on the bed, much to the cat's amazement.

"He crawled into my lap and started drooling on my leg," Gardiner said.

She was surprised to find her 10-year-old cat in such good condition. Even though he was a shadow of his former 15 pounds, he was healthy at about eight pounds and hadn't lost his ears to frostbite.

Only the cat knows how he traveled so many miles from Fourth Avenue East to Rose Crossing. Gardiner combined his new name with his old name, honoring his triumphant battle for survival.

"Now I call him Alexander Jean Picard the Great," she said.

After this successful experience, Gardiner plans to have her dog Sage chipped.

Local veterinary clinics charge around $40 to install a microchip. Owners then pay an enrollment fee of about $20 to have their information entered into the identification system.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.