Pets are wonderful creatures. They listen to us, snuggle with us, make us smile and love us unconditionally…and we don’t deserve them.

Most of us come from a small town, the middle of nowhere or a safe neighborhood where you trust everyone.

And I’m going to assume most of us have a pet, pets or are a fan of animals.

Now, do you have a collar for your beloved pet? There are many excuses I have heard: “I don’t live in a city, my dog just kind of roams but always comes home,” “oh, he never gets out,” or, my personal favorite, “we can’t find a size right for him and he always takes it off.”

So what’s a good samaritan to do when they find a roaming dog in the cold with no collar?

I always find it useful to beckon the puppy (because all dogs are puppies, right?) or cat over to check for a collar. It’s usually cold, so I immediately start looking for neighbors that are outside.

If the street is empty, then I start knocking on doors, annoyed. Sometimes it requires driving the dog around if you are in Nowhere, Ohio and the houses are a mile apart.

Never be afraid to tell the owners that they need to buy a collar that fits. There is a great invention called adjustable collars. Simply adjust the collar to the size of the dog.

It isn’t hard.

Most shelters take in lost pets and blast social media and their website with the lost pet. Can you imagine seeing your cat or dog in a noisy shelter with other animals, after being lost and cold?

There is another way to make sure your pet is returned to you: microchip them.

Microchipping is implanting a tiny chip right beneath the skin and cannot be taken out. Granted, this does not mean a speedy reunion as it requires a machine to read.

In an Instagram poll, 42% of respondents said that their pet has a collar or microchip, 58% said no. There were also some respondents who said their pet has both a collar and microchip.

In a Twitter poll, 33% of respondents said that their pet has a collar or microchip, 50% said no and 17% said their pet has both a collar and microchip.

Moral of the story: just buy a collar or microchip your furry member of the family. Let’s be honest, life has gotten infinitely better with them.