Author: Belinda

Oh what a twenty-four hours it has been!  Last night we popped over last minute to my Mum and Dad’s for dinner.  They are great like that. They never mind setting an extra three places at the table.  We also took our dog Bonnie.  She is a beautiful eight year old Shih Tzu. I refer to her as my first born. It wasn’t until after dinner I looked around for Bonnie.  She was nowhere to be found. We soon realized she was lost!

The searching began.  First we started by walking the streets with torches calling her.  This lasted about three hours.  Mum and Dad’s wonderful neighbors helped search too.  I even began to knock on peoples  doors if they had their front lights on.   There was no sign of her.  Ben had gone to bed at Mums in the the middle of all of this.  Before he went to bed he told me not to worry.  His exact words were ‘Don’t worry Mummy.  Don’t be sad.  We go to the council and they will have her’, he paused…….. and finished with ‘after we get her we can come home and fight the Death Star’.  For those who aren’t familiar with the Death Star it is the ultimate bad guy mother ship in Star Wars.  He always makes me smile – thanks Ben.  I made some signs to put up and collected all the phone numbers I needed to call in the morning to register her missing.  It was a very long night.  Andrew and I did not sleep well.  My dreams were full of Bonnie.  I was imagining the worst and my heart was breaking.  The morning seemed to take forever to arrive.  To make matters worse it rained during the night.  Bonnie normally sleeps in a basket beside our bed and doesn’t even like to step on wet grass.  My heart sank.  I tried to stay positive.

We began our search in the morning by ringing the council to register her as missing. The lady was so helpful.   She is registered with our local council as well as being micro-chipped with Central Animal Records – CAR.  We knew she would be ok if someone honest found her.  My Mum put up posters around her neighborhood, shopping center, and asked anyone walking their dog.   Andrew and Ben did a letter box drop.    We visited the pound twice during the day as well as registering her missing with all the local vets.  In the afternoon we discovered that there is a service that the RSPCA provide called ‘Pet D-tec‘.  You pay a small fee and they search for you and make posters and send them out.  We registered for that as well.  I rang the council a few times just to double check on things.  I talked to the same lady each time and even she had begun to worry.  There was another Shih Tzu found in the next suburb.  But after talking with these people we discovered it wasn’t Bonnie.   I broke down sobbing after that.  Andrew just held me and listened to my strange sobbing noises – love you honey.  In between all of this we had a doctors appointment for an ongoing issue.  It was just more than I could bare.  Andrew however continued to be positive.  He was certain that Bonnie would be coming home.  He is just so wonderful xo

Minutes later we got our first piece of news.  Mum had talked to her other neighbour.  He had seen a dog fitting the description at the local shops  about a kilometer away.  Mum and I picked up Ben and Andrew from their letter box drop and we all made our way to search the shops and surrounding area.  While we were there I received ‘the’ call.  The council lady rang (The same lady I had been speaking to all day.  She said she never gets to speak to the same customer) and said she was so excited to receive a call that Bonnie had been found.  She said the lady who found Bonnie really wanted my details to bring her to us.  The council lady was explaining that that wasn’t the process while she was searching the databases registration numbers.  She said she screamed out ‘You found BONNIE’ to the lady on the other end.  The council lady quickly rang me and transferred me through to the lady who found Bonnie…… have you followed all that!!  I could hardly talk as I was crying AGAIN but happy tears this time.  It works out that the lady who found Bonnie lives across from the local shops where we were searching.  We had Bonnie back in our arms within five minutes of the phone call.  She was incredibley stinky but it didn’t worry us.   We cuddled her up.

I am incredibly thankful to Andrew, Ben (for being so beautiful), Mum, Dad, Mum’s neighbours (both sides), everyone we spoke to on the phone, the lady at the council, and especially that lady who found Bonnie.  I can’t believe I can’t remember any of the ladies names.  But tomorrow I will be visiting the council and the ladies house with flowers.  They found Our Girl!!!  We am so grateful…….. Thank you , Thank you, Thank you xo

It was such a big day Ben fell asleep in the car on the way home.  He was so happy to have his Pup Pup back (that is what he calls her).  I have never been so happy to bring both my babies home!!

Here is Bonnie…. all scrubbed and with a full belly.     She ate more food than I have ever seen her eat.  She is now asleep on the lounge snoring.  Welcome home beautiful girl – what an adventure xoxo