One out of 3 pets will be lost at some point in their life. Orange County Animal Services is trying to make sure more pets get reunited with their owners.

Throughout April, Orange County Animal Services is waiving the adoption fee for cats and kittens under one condition: they must be microchipped.

A microchip is a device about the size of a grain of rice that’s implanted under the animal’s skin. If the pet is ever lost, shelters can scan the chip and return them to their owner

Only about 5-percent of cats that entered Orange County shelters this year were reunited with their owners, compared to 30-percent of dogs

Carolina Mlynarczyk, spokeswoman for Orange County Animal Services, hopes microchipping will boost that number.

“We’re trying to increase both those numbers for dogs and cats, but specifically kitties. The more cats we bring in the more we’d like to bring back out to their families,” she said. She hopes more microchips lead to more lost pet reunions.

Microchipping for new cat adoptions costs $9.95.

Current Orange County residents can get their pets microchippedfor free on April 19th from 1 pm to 5 pm at the county’s animal shelter clinic. Microchipping is available any other day at the clinic between 1 pm and 5 pm for a $15 fee.