Gizmo, a chihuahua mix, slipped out the back gate in February 2015. For nearly a decade his owner Judith searched and never stopped hoping. In July 2024 she received the email she had dreamed of: someone had found Gizmo and his microchip had been scanned at an animal hospital. He was in rough shape — skin and dental infections — but unmistakably her dog. A key step: she had re-registered the chip in 2020, so the alert reached her.