When your pet goes missing
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Thong goes wandering and forgets how to come home
No one whose pet has gone missing will ever forget that terrible feeling when you first realise that the animal is not where he should be.
Has he wandered off by himself? Has he been injured? Has he been stolen?
You search the sois looking for him. If you can’t find him, you put up notices on walls, on telephone poles and on notice boards of vets in the area. Some radio stations are even willing to help.
I’ve written how Seu-ah, the dog who appeared in our soi, was finally found by his owner. How many days did it take his owner to search all the little sois between his house and our area before he found his beloved dog?
I was very fortunate when Wan-Wan, my poodle pup, disappeared some years ago. Everyone knows Wan, and when a neighbour saw her wandering around and realised I wasn’t home, she brought the little dog into her house to keep her safe until I returned.
Later, I taught Wan “Stay inside”. It took her only five minutes, with reinforcement several times over the next few days. Now, even when I open the gate to let a guest in, she doesn’t cross the boundary between “home” and “soi”.
Most of my cats stay inside my house, but Thep and Thong, the two soi boys, regularly slip outside the gate to wander wherever they wish.
Thong has a problem, though. He’s not that bright. He can climb up outside the second and third floor patios, but he doesn’t know how to jump down.
When it’s time to come inside, he waits outside the third floor until I let him in.
With the recent rains, he generally comes in as soon as raindrops start falling on his head, but a few days ago, he didn’t show up, not even when the rain stopped.
By the time it was dark, I was growing worried, and so was his friend Thep. He’d come inside, call unhappily and then go out again. He didn’t even eat.
Finally, when Thong hadn’t appeared by 10pm, I went out to look for him, when it was quiet and people had brought their dogs inside.
At first, I didn’t hear or see anything and turned back to my home, but Thep, who had been walking with me, pushed me back. He didn’t want me to stop.
The clever boy began calling, and suddenly we both heard Thong, calling from an empty house at the end of the soi. Its windows have been left open.
Thong had apparently entered the house through an upstairs window, wandered down to the first floor, and then couldn’t remember how to get out.
Thep understood the problem immediately. He stood outside an open window calling to the boy. When Thong didn’t understand, Thep jumped inside, then outside, and slowly, Thong comprehended.
A few minutes later, he appeared. It took an other half-hour before he came to me.
With Thep following, I held him firmly until I brought him inside my house, where the two boys settled in for a meal and a nap.
When you’re searching for a missing pet, it helps to bring a friend along.
