Jim Dohr, community services officer with the Albany Police Department, says the first thing he does when he finds a stray animal is scan it with this wand to check for a microchip. Several dogs in Albany were reunited with their owners recently because an encrypted, rice-sized identification microchip had been implanted near the pets’ shoulder blades. Even more lost dogs and cats could get home faster and not wind up at the pound if their owners had their animals microchipped, Dohr said. When there is a microchip, the wand’s reader provides a telephone number and a pet identification number and a telephone number for an identification service, which can provide the address and telephone number of the pet’s owner. Veterinarians and Linn County Dog Control can implant the chips, he said. The county charges about $15, and veterinarians usually charge anywhere from $50 to $60, Dohr said.