DuckSouth.com

Aug 22, 2002 10:23 AM PT
Give your pet a mobile phone
Lost your cat or dog? No need to whistle or call on a fruitless search--just track your pet with your mobile phone. A Finnish firm says ``wanted'' posters of lost pets will be a thing of the past thanks to new technology: a mobile phone and a tracking unit that is strapped on the back of the animal.
When the pet goes missing its movements are followed via an electronic map displayed on a handheld monitor by the owner. The device is also expected to be popular among hunters needing to trace their dogs searching for game, said Matti Koskelo, sales manager at Pointer Solutions, one of the firms marketing the system. --Reuters

This is off the subject, but the post reminded me of it so I thought I'd add some humor....Several years ago I remember a Paul Harvey story about a man who had laid his cellphone on his nightstand before he went to bed. The next morning the phone was missing. He called the phone and his dog started ringing. The dog had swallowed the phone whole. Now I was picturing this to be a big dog, but then he said it was a chihuahua. He went to the vet and had it removed. The dog was fine.

That is funny. I hope it was in the 90's. I pictured one of the 80's brick phones when I was reading that.

What I would be willing to pay for is a chip that is planted under the hide of a dog that is tracked. That way if the dog was stolen or lost I could recover. But as for strapping a phone to the dog I don't think so.