missing goofy...

My life is full of stories or maybe i just make every incident into a story...in any case this was worth sharing...

A friend lost her dog almost a month back...a beautiful lab. If ur a dog lover n have had pets you know it means far more then loosing an inanimate object and just a notch less then loosing a kid!!

And for her, it meant even more because it was her dog, and only her's, she went through a lot to get it, was one of the few living things she calls her own.

anyways, so the first question in my head, 'How do you loose a dog'. Well aparently, its easy, and happens quiet often. Her mum took him for a walk, and on seeing some other dogs, it just bolted. By the time back she could contact my friend who was out n came back n started searching, it had disappeared without a trace. As i write this, am wondering what trace would a lost dog in a big city leave anyways, and what signs do you look out for. These r the things you think about only when the situation arrises.

so that started a fortnight of searching every possible location we could think of. Combing that and all other surrounding areas, every morning and every evening going up to well past midnight everyday...the thing with loosing a dog is, what do u say at work...have to take a two week off because i lost my dog...doesnt work. Anyways first it was the manual search, then was the spreading the word phase and finally putting up posters n sharing on fb and all...

Everyone, including me, had some gyaan to give, first 24 hours the general line was 'its a pet dog, they always come back', next 48 were, 'its a confusing area, must have got lost' which changed into 'must have been stolen, was a well bred dog, n they are expensive' and so it went till everyone became quiet and the anxiety of not finding him turned into hopelessness!

My friend was stoic throughout, because like any libran, we internalise our pains, we find it too trivial and beneath us to express it, but it stays with us. The magnitude of expression is always muted, and we are never hopeful too much for the fear of jinxing it and because we hate disappointments, as she said once, it would shatter her!

She too stopped talking anout him, but only if you looked beyond those laughs, u'd see the pain.

The thing with loosing someone is that there is no closure. It is worse then someone dying, because you can never make ur peace with it. You are forever hopeful, even if with time the intensity goes down. If someones dies, you can remember the good times and you can have your regrets...if you loose someone, there is always the 'if it comes back i will...' mindset. And even worse is that every small sign which ignites the hope of youfinding bring back all the anxiety and finally the disappointment n pain.

And this story, is about such an incident...i was involved so writing about it!

So the other day, a friend of hers hears about two guys finding a dog on Radio Indigo, they had searched for its owner and finally left it at Karuna for adoption. So since i know people at CUPA, I get a call to inquire and i do. Nope, both Karuna and CUPA haven't got a dog. So anyways next call the guy who announced the message on Radio Indigo, a guy who finally turned out to be a 8th Std kid with pharatedaar english and a mobile phone. So he gives me the entire story, they found an abandoned dog, and thought it was someone else's dog, but it wasn't, n then they searched the entire society for its owner, and since he already had a black lab at home, they just decided to give it up for adoption. and so ended up at Karuna. He tells me that dogs get adopted quite quickly from there so i should check, and so I say i will...

so i start, midway the kid starts sending me msg's that he wants to come as well...so i ask his address...'Last Bus Stop, some area i have never heard of, Bangalore (thankfully). so anyways i start, in 6:30 PM traffic, reach an area that i have never heard of, thanks to Google maps on BB. thankfully no rains that day. Pick up the kid, he calls his 'first time sitting on a bike' as 'long time i have sat on a bike', and in answer to how did you get an announcement done on radio Indigo, his answer 'well, lets just say i have contact." :D. 

Anyways so we start towards Karuna, and if getting to the kid was difficult, this i wouldn't like to describe. Reach Karuna, and there are about 4-5 chowkidars and registrars and people sitting, but no docs so can't see the dog. I am almost pissed, try negotiating, arguing, giving some money, but to no avail. One thing I have seen about people, they don't really understand Logic, rules are rules, and need to be upheld, not because they are sacred, but because the seniors won't like them breaking it. Not sure if its bangalore or uneducated class...

anyways finally got my friend (dogs owner) to talk to the guy in Kannada (always works), she threatened with some names (chairman of karuna was one i think, anyways this also always works) and finally the dude calls the doc, who takes another hour to get there and i finally get to see 'the dog'.

so Karuna, its a adoption center, but looks more like a dog jail, long corridors with cages lined up on both sides, stinking of howling dogs. get to the cage, F-07 i think, and out comes the dog...and it has all the markings. Looks like goof, red collar, hairless burn marks in its leg pits...am like 95% sure its him. 

so take out the iPhone to take some pics and send to friend, and of course when i need it the most, my iPhone dies. Take pics from BB, but no way to send them out. Mail attachment limitations...so anyways can't do much at that point, so start back to drop the kid...drop him, finally come back to my sis's place very close to Karuna. and get bashed up by her, but more about that sometime later.

Next morning, i go back to my place, and the friend comes to confirm if its her dog. I reach home, and get 4 missed calls from unknown number, finally pick up, and this guy tells me that he works at BIA, and had adopted the dog in F-07 but officials there are not letting him take him. So he's like, even if ur dog, I would like to adopt it. and I am like 'balls'!!!

so call the friend, she rushes to Karuna, and confirm he is not her dog. Yep, not her dog. So she is there on her knees calling him by his name, hoping against hope that he will respond, the guy who adopted him day before is there looking all pleased that he will be able to take him home, and then the final twist, a third guy turns up, lost his dog in the same area this one was rescued from...he comes, shouts once 'Simba' and the dog runs and lies on his feet!!!

so after all the drama, and bad endings for everyone, at least it ended well for the dog! It was a long story, but when was happening was like one of those movies where one thing leads to another and story gets murkier by the scene.