OP glad you have decided to go ahead and get it done. I used to really dislike the idea of chipping, but after the experiences we've had over the past 25+ years have changed my mind. (Nice mn name by the way - are you a fan of The Orb by any chance?)
In over 25 years of having dogs I have had three of the incidents Scuttlebutter mentioned in her post happen:
Dog peacefully at home. House burgled - dog kicked and beaten by burglars, dog escapes through open back doors and garden gate.
Actually our back gate and back door were both kicked in by people who wanted to steal the dog (most probably for dog fighting/bait in his case). I had had people frequently following us on walks and been approached with offers to buy him in the preceding weeks. The incident was witnessed by neighbours and as our dog was fearful of strangers he ran out of the house, shredding his feet on the broken glass from the back door, nails and splinters from the gate and ran off. He was in a right state, but came back to our neighbours, who kindly kept him till we got home, our other dog however, was missing for hours. Fortunately, she eventually turned up on the doorstep about 8 hours later. Neighbours were busy trying to watch where the first dog went, so we'll never know whether or not second dog was taken and escaped or whether she just ran off as well. Nothing was taken from the house, which the police said would seem to confirm they were after the dog.
Dog escapes while workmen in the house, not closing doors/gates. We had a plumber leave both the back door and gate open, resulting in two of our dogs taking off around the neighbourhood. Fortunately, loose dogs are rare around here and they happened to pass a friend's house, who recognised them, ran out with her builder, caught the pair of them and brought them home. Dh was already out looking and we'd called the dog-warden, but they were home within the hour.
Dog let out into garden for ablutions. High wind has pulled down part of fencing - dog escapes. This happened to us twice! Same dog. First time she was missing overnight and we were distraught. She was found at the local riding school next morning, by some people that were going to a dog show there. They wanted to keep her! 
Next time she only got as far as the park, right behind our house, but was taken home by some kind people, who were on the phone to the dog-warden while I was getting the engaged tone desperately trying to get through. We were reunited within the hour that time - and we made sure the neighbours finally did a proper job of fixing their dodgy fence that we'd been asking them to fix for months.
We also had a dog climb out of my parents' garden when they were dog-sitting. Parents had boarded-up their 6ft ornamental wrought-iron gate to stop her getting out and the dog used the boards to claw her way up and over. She was missing 48 hours, before being hit by a car less than a mile away, right outside a veterinary surgery. She was killed instantly, nothing they could do, but given she was both chipped and tagged, at least we knew what happened were able to agree to them arranging for her to be cremated and returned to us. 
We now have agricultural spec, close board fencing with concrete bases and posts all the way around the garden and all my dogs are chipped and have both normal dog tags and sliding tags on their collars. We also have our vets details on the tags, just in case.