I was taking a walk. I had my earbuds in but I still felt a presence behind me. I turned around to see a pretty dog, with one blue eye and one brown, ambling close behind. I was initially startled, but then she turned out to be one of the sweetest dogs you'd ever meet.

My house is a bit out of town and there's property between the houses, not to mention a bunch of open road. I was a bit worried about her because it was in the heat of the day and she was clearly thirsty and looked a bit road-weary.

Thankfully she had her tags on so it wasn't too difficult to realize she lived not too far down the road--much to my relief. Akyra was home for dinner.

However, I've met lots of sweet dogs, and cats for that matter, who wander around with no tags whatsoever. I lost a cat who was precious to me two summers ago. He had sadly slipped outside and wasn't wearing his tags. After months of searching I found him and he'd been killed by a car. As you can imagine, I'm very sensitive to this situation.

I know sometimes our pets don't necessarily want to wear their collars. But if they have outside access, it is crucial. Please. Get those tags out of the closet and make sure your pets would be easily identifiable by those who'd like to help get them home to you as soon as possible.


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