Lost and Found

Here we are in early December, and I'm finally getting back to my blog. November was spent moving into a new house and I'm so glad that chore is out of the way...well, almost. The pasture still has to be cleaned out and some fencing done before I can bring Tuff and Tickles home, but I'll write more about that later. Right now they are still at my in-law's place, hopefully staying out of trouble.

I say "hopefully" because Tickles has already found herself in a heap of it due to her gifted ability to remove herself from pastures and enclosures she doesn't particularly care for.

This brings me, in a round-about-way, to my topic today of pet IDs. What happens when your dog escapes from the yard and disappears? It could depend upon whether he is wearing a collar with current tags. Same with a cat. (Heck, they even make tags for children in case they get lost!) Pet ID tags can mean the difference between getting your critters back or not, maybe even saving their lives.

But for horses this area is a bit sketchy. Horses don't wear collars, and it's generally known that it is dangerous to leave halters on them when you aren't handling them. What happens to escapees? Well this time, in Tickles' case, she hung around outside of her pasture for a while (surmised from strategically located piles of poop), then wandered up the road home. My mother-in-law found her in the front yard the next morning. All the other horses in her former pasture were still there; she had simply decided to leave.

What worries me is what could have happened if Tickles hadn't come home? If a car had hit her on the road the occupants could have been killed or injured, as well as she. I am working on ID kits to keep in case the horses are lost or stolen. It includes photos and descriptions of their markings and scars. But that's so that I can find them (hopefully) if they happen to disappear. The question is, how do you mark or tag your horses with your address and phone number so that when they're spotted, you can be contacted? I've heard that during disaster evacuations, horse owners mark their animals by writing contact information onto duct tape secured to their halters or shaved into their hair or on tabs tied into the mane.

There has to be a more permanant solution. I just haven't found it yet; but obviously I have a need. This last incident was not even remotely the first time that Tickles has escaped; and with a new environment soon to be at her disposal, this issue is deserving of some serious thought. I would appreciate any ideas you may have on the subject.

And by the way, if you see a small spotted mare ambling down your street, please drop me a line! Meanwhile, I'll be trying to come up with a better idea.