CHENNAI: The name Casey has been grabbing our attention over social media for quite some time. A happy-go-lucky furry Golden Retriever, Casey went missing before being found by his owner days later. But what did the dog go through for the 11 days he was away from his home and people? Casey isn’t the only case of a missing dog and duly returned. There are many other such cases that go unnoticed, especially when the dog fails to turn up. City Express talks to veterinarians, animal communicators and pet owners to shed light on the issue of missing pets and how one can avoid encountering such a situation.
“For the past month, I have had at least three to four cases of stolen pets,” shares Sanjuktha M, an animal communicator in the city. It is natural that your ever excited furry friend would love to go out for a walk. Once accustomed to walks, it is advisable to have a name or number tag attached to their collar, so that your pet can get timely help if they go missing.
Sanjuktha explains that it is usually the smaller dogs that are prone to such thefts because they are easy to handle. However, there are equal chances of other bigger pedigree dogs to be stolen as well. “I believe that people have a thing for Labradors and Retrievers, but that doesn’t rule out the other breeds.”
Cats and dogs are the most commonly found pets at home, where dogs get attached to the family, cats get attached to the house. If left alone, there are chances of the pet, especially dogs, becoming anxious and restless.
“When a dog loses itself, apart from being frightened, they either end up getting lost or stolen. It’s partly due to negligence of the owner and partly because the pet is too inquisitive,” says Dr S Saravana, Veera Pet clinic.
Will inserting a micro-chip help owners track their pets down? Our veterinarian explains, “The micro- chips will only help identify the genetic code of a dog and the owner’s information. It cannot track the dog. The name tag with a number is advisable over anything else.”
We identified a few pet owners who lost their pet, and somehow found them back! Akhilesh, owner of Max, an Indian dog, recalls losing Max for nearly 14 days in Tiruchy. “We were really close to getting him with the help of Sanjuktha and an auto driver. We somehow narrowed down on Max’s location then. When we found him, he was weak and couldn’t even get up. I still remember how he slept for nearly five hours that day.”
If you thought a stolen pet was hard, can you imagine what the pet goes through? “Just as how a child left in hostel is clueless, the dog too is left puzzled about its new environment and changes. Plus, their stress levels rise,” explains Dr Priya Govind, another veterinarian in the city. “Each dog deals with changes differently. A dog may lose its trust on humans when caught by a breeder. If the dog lands up in a family who can take care of him, he
will adapt himself. But if it gets into the hands of a breeder, it will begin to lose trust in humans and will have no attachments to anything and continue to live like a zombie.”
While we have Akhilesh and Hari (owner of Casey) who were lucky enough to find their pals back, Sushmitha Ramakrishnan didn’t have a happy ending. “We didn’t have many pictures of our four-month old Pasta. She was a well-trained pup who would deny treats from strangers. But one day, she just went missing and for the next 12 days my father and I went searching for her every morning. We would shout her name on roads but we never found her again,” she tears up.