PEA RIDGE — It was nearly dawn when the storm broke out.

Walter, an 8-year-old beagle, was chained in the back yard. His owners had just left for vacation and someone was coming soon to take care of him.

Terrified of storms, the little beagle tugged and pulled at his collar until he pulled free and then got out of the fenced yard.

He ran and ran and ran.

When Sara Martfeld’s mother and daughter arrived about 7 a.m. at the house on Patton Street in Pea Ridge, Walter was no where to be found. They looked and looked unsuccessfully.

“He was absolutely terrified of storms. We had left about 3 in the morning to go on vacation and my mom and daughter weregoing to the house to take care of him,” Martfeld said. “We didn’t know it was going to storm.”

“They drove the roads and looked for him for a week. When we got back, I spent two weeks driving the back roads. I looked everywhere for him. He was gone about four weeks when I got a call from the Rogers Humane Society. They had him,” Martfeld said. “They had located him from the microchip.

“He was found on the south side of Lowell. I never would have looked that far for him. I was going in a five-mile radius around Pea Ridge.”

Martfeld said she was able to retrieve “Walter the wonder beagle” only because he had a microchip.

“Poor guy, he was all beat up.

His pads were run off. His feet were bloody. He was skinny. But,the only way I got him back was the microchip,” she said, adding that she had called several shelters.

Both veterinary clinics in town - Oak View Animal Hospital and Pea Ridge Veterinary Clinic - provide microchip service.

Dr. Karen Sherman and Dr. Gary France both recommend putting a micro-chip in pets. A microchip is implanted beneath the skin between the animal’s shoulder blades.

Implanting a microchip is relatively inexpensive and fairly non-intrusive. Using a 14-gauge needle, Dr. Karen Sherman recently implanted a microchip between the shoulder blades on Blue, a Louisiana Catahoula cur owned by Wacy Rieff Williams, one of her employees.

Williams held Blue, who didn’t even whimper.

“Microchipping is the best method if a dog or cat is missing for it to be returned from a shelter or rescue facility,” Dr. Sherman said.

On the microchip is information about the animal and its owners - name, contact information including telephone number and address.

“All shelters are provided universal readers,” Dr. Sherman said, adding that her clinic uses Home Again microchips and readers.

France said he uses Avid.

The cost can range from $20 to $50. A yellow plastic tag is given to the client to place on the animal’s collar to indicate that it does have a microchip.

There is an initial charge to the service to register the animal; annual subscription service is available as well.

The microchip is registered with a pet recovery service which sends both a fax and e-mail with a photograph and notice of found animals to veterinarians.

Dr. Gary France, Pea Ridge Veterinarian Clinic, said he has had microchip service since it first came out. He said he has a universal reader at his clinic.

He has clients who microchip their horses.

“My horses are microchipped,” Jackie Griffith, accounts manager for France, said. “They are not registered with a pedigree, but they mean the world to me. I wanted a way to prove they were mine.”

Martfeld said her sister has Boston Terriers, all ofwhich have a microchip.

She, too, recovered one of her pets thanks to a microchip when it got out of a truck during a trip and was lost. Thanks to the microchip, when the dog was found, the owners werenotified and the dog was returned to them.

News, Pages 1 on 09/07/2011