Good News! 
.
Cheetah, an Indian Dog missing from Gurgaon, is finally reunited with family after 15 days Dog owner Ms. Tanya has confirmed about this miraculous dog reunion story with Missing Dog Helpline.
“I was travelling to the UK and hence my father didn’t tell me when Cheetah first went missing. He told me when I came back, and till then it had already been a good 15 days.”
The first person I contacted was Mrs Madhu Goyal, as I am on her mailing list. There was a dog similar looking to Cheetah in one of her emails, hence I decided to contact her. The poor baby was in GK-1 under the care of a kind lady called Smith. However my heart broke when I realised it wasn’t Cheetah, just someone who resembled like him.
My father had contacted PFA and a couple of dog lovers in Gurgaon. PFA in Gurgaon was helpful. When I came back, I contacted Missing Dog Helpline, and then Red Paws and Sai Ashram as I am involved with these organisations.
I did not try to file an FIR knowing the overall callous attitude of police and I knew there was no point in contacting them.
Once I was back, I made posters in Hindi and English and stuck them around Gurgaon. Also my staff was constantly canvassing the area. I declared reward money in my posters since I feared Cheetah was abducted and kept in one of the local villages around Gurgaon. I don’t necessary want to encourage the reward courage, but you feel so helpless, that any option looks like a viable option. I feel declaring reward money in posters works in such situation as some people tend to volunteer information only when there is something to be personally gained. However, luckily, I did not receive any such phone calls from people seeking money to provide clue of Cheetah.
Those 15 days were extremely stressful, and I didn’t sleep for two days. I felt guilty since it was my idea to get him from Manali to Delhi to spend some time with the family. And the thought of him being alone in this heat was traumatizing. Not knowing the fate of your loved one is the most awful feeling, since you have no closure. It affected my work adversely during those days.
My dad decided to visit the shelters personally and check the dogs out. When he went to PFA Gurgaon, he was told that a dog who resembled like Cheetah was in the Sick Bay. And lo and behold, it turned out to be our Cheetah.
Apparently Cheetah was at PFA from May 22 2014, but they didn’t identify him. My dad went to all the shelters personally and then the staff gave him information after the posters got distributed. Posters with reward works sometimes.
Cheetah was wounded in Sushant Lok in Gurgaon. A dog lover had called PFA and they picked him up from there. He was undergoing treatment for the wound in his leg. However, when we picked him up, he had at least 1000 ticks on him and a small maggot wound. He also had fever and was a little dehydrated. But as soon as he saw my dad, he ran and jumped to greet him. We immediately took him to the vet and all the necessary steps were taken to avoid infection.
After going through this traumatising incident, I would like to suggest other dog owners that make sure your domestic staff is not careless. Make it a rule in the house to ensure that the gate is not left opened. Also always ensure your dog is on a leash.
I strongly believe that there is a need of some kind of Dog Registry in India that could be helpful in such situation. And, properly execution of workforce in animal shelters etc to be ensured.
In our case, we were in touch with PFA constantly on the phone, but the staff is so overworked and at times blasé, that they were not able to tell us that Cheetah has been with them for 12 days. It was only when we went personally; we were able to identify him.
But all well that ends well!
Regards.
-Tanya Palta, Gurgaon
