- The reader's dog was stolen on November 4. He wrote a community report to Gulf News.
- After the report was published, many people came forward to help out.
- On November 10, someone found his dog in the same area as he lived in.
Dubai: Somebody found Mickey! Gulf News helped.
November 4 was a difficult day for us. My dog, Mickey, was stolen from my Dubai villa. Somebody had arrived outside my house and taken him away. But, after days of searching, on November 10, good news finally came in the form of a phone call.
We live in a villa in the Al Barsha South 1 area of Dubai and after Mickey was taken, I searched in my area for days. I went around asking people if they had seen him. Some people advised me to offer monetary rewards, as it might be an incentive. But, I printed posters in A3 size, with big pictures of Mickey, mentioning that he was lost and did offer a small reward. These were put up in my area, too.
But, it really helped when my article about Mickey appeared in Gulf News. Many people saw it, especially on the Gulf News Facebook page. A lot of people responded, with some even saying they had seen a dog that looked like Mickey in different areas. I had visited the areas they highlighted, including Abu Dhabi and Al Ain as well, but no luck.
Finally, the winning call arrived on Saturday. It was someone who had seen my posters and he told me that he had found a dog that matched Mickey’s description. He even sent me a video and some pictures. On seeing them, I knew it was my dog.
I asked this person to send me his location and turns out, he was living one street away from my home. The day before he called me, I was in front of his house, searching for Mickey. I didn’t know then that my dog was inside.
When I arrived at his place, he was waiting outside. A young man, maybe in his 20s, he told me that the dog was inside with his friend. But, he wanted to be sure that I was in fact the owner, and asked me if Mickey would recognise me. I’m glad he was being careful and told him to open the door.
On seeing me, Mickey came running and hugged me. I immediately put him in the car and then spoke to the individual who had called me. He claimed that someone had found the dog and gave it to him to take care of till the owner was found. He didn’t have any further details.
I didn’t seem to believe his story. He could have checked with Dubai Municipality. They could easily track the owner through Mickey’s microchip.
However, since I didn’t have any proof that he was the same person who had taken Mickey in the first place, I didn’t push too much. The man said that Mickey was well taken care of. He has a female husky at home and he placed Mickey with her.
But, when my dog came home, he looked really scared and stressed out. Perhaps he thought I had abandoned him, but he wanted to stay in his safe zone and refused to go out, for even a walk, for the first few days. I immediately took him to the vet, too, but thankfully, he was perfectly healthy.
Today, he is feeling better and is back to his normal self. I am really glad that he is back!
— The reader is an engineer based in Dubai.
