Amazing grace

8th May 2009. The advertisement of Bon Bon came out on the Straits Times newspaper today. Both Betty and I hope for the best although we have come to term with the possibility of not having Bon Bon back despite all the efforts we have placed in. So this is like the last straw.

I could not concentrate on my work. MY mind was occupied with flashes of the memory with Bon Bon in the house and every little thing that he would do like waiting eagerly for me to come home and when I did reached home, he would follow me to my room and wait for me to take of my socks (He loves socks!).I usually toss him my socks in the shape of a ball. It is month end accounts closing for April 2009 and I could not concentrate. I have prepared all the neccesary accounting journals for one of the holdings company under my portfolio and it only has less than 10 entries. The journal report is correctly prepared and it has to be entered into the SAP system. I entered the wrong account although I have the right journal entry stated right there on the journal report! MY superior is very kind by not giving me the hair-dryer treatment although she has not ever been known for her temper.



The day pass minutes by minutes with Betty calling me in between to check whether I am OK and all. Of course I would tell her I am OK although I do wallow in self pity here and there. Both of us were thinking of ways to keep looking for Bon Bon and exploring some crazy ideas such as calling the newspaper agency and tell them my wife is depressed and near to the point of insanity in hope that the news agency would cover the story OR another crazy idea is to go to each and every pet shop in Singapore to notify them of the missing dog.

Mary has opted to help us look for Bon Bon and so has Brian and others (Bless their hearts). We have planned to carry out a few exercises i.e. distribute flyers to each residents in the vicinity (The number would be in thousands), distribute flyers to all the pet shops and vets in the north, and the door-to-door combing exercise. So we're set with my household, Mary, Brian and his gang to conduct the search-and-rescue mission. The agreed timing is 0900hour of 9th May 2009.

After I knocked off from home, I rushed home to prepare for a combing exercise on a few blocks on my own. I grabbed the frozen chocolate doughnut from the fridge, which Betty brought back from Malaysia (also the day Bon Bon went missing) and wash it down with a glass of plain water. I am on my bicycle to circle the vicinity for any sign of my Bon Bon. I went further away, breaking the 500m radius within my unit in hope for some new leads. Scouting on the bicycle ended 1 hour later without yielding any positive results. I headed home to deposit my bicycle to continue searching on foot.

I started with Block 127 as there are some "eye-witness" who mentioned that they saw him there and what nots.I go all the way up to the top level to work my way down by whistling some catchy tunes or pretend to talk on the handphone real loud to attract any dogs that may be inside each house. Block 127 does not yield any results except for some other dogs' barking and plenty of calories burnt. I proceeded to Blcok 126 and half way through, I was joined by Diana and Pooi See. We used the same method and combed the whole block, unit-by-unit...nothing. Proceeded with Block 124... nothing. Block 122... nothing. The 3 of us return home worned to the toes. We ended the search by 2130hour+. We decided to call it a day and continue tomorrow.

Betty knocked off around 1115pm+ and we walk around a little bit to buy the Wan Bao(Night newspaper. We decided to call the agency to tell them the story of Betty's insanity state) and packed a packet of fried bee hoon along the way for Betty's dinner. When we're done, we headed back home and about this time I received a PRIVATE call.

"Is this Johnathan?"The man or rather boy on the other side of the phone asked in mandarin.

"Yes?" I replied expectantly.

Ï have some information regarding your missing dog but I cannot guarantee whether you can get it back or not" he said.

"Where are you? Can we meet up? Which unit or block is the dog at? How much do you want for it?"

"We're not looking for money" said the boy.

"No no, I insist! Where are you now??" I said.

"What would you do to the family? She is our friend so we do not wish to see him hurt or his family harrassed" the boy asked.

"I promise you that we only want the dog back and in fact, we would even give them money to have our dog back!" I replied.

"Wait, I have to check with my friends first whether it is OK. I will call you back in 5 minutes time" he said.

At this point, Betty grabbed the handphone and talk to her and pleaded with her in tears to return our boy to us but the caller hung up. Both Betty and I were restless and these 5 minutes perhaps is one of the longest wait in our lives. We try to size up who those people may be by observing our surrounding but later decided it'd be best to go home first and wait. So we headed home and upon reaching home, the person called again and agreed to lead us there but ask us to just go to the unit oon our own instead of him bringing us to the door steps as this is someone that he knew and further asked us not to reveal that it was him who gave the tip off.

We agreed to meet in Block 123 and without further delay, Diana, Betty and I rushed to meet this boy. Along the way, we saw 3 other people (2 boys + 1 girl) who we knew later was actually the callers friend. They are around 15-16 years of age. Once we met the caller, he brought us to Block 120 and we proceeded to take the lift to level 12. The unit that Bon Bon was claimed to be in was unit 203. We walked towards the unit without the boy and Betty called for Bon Bon and lo, we heard grunts and snorts that are definitely those from Bon Bon!!!

We heard someone carried the dog away from the front door, which was closed to prevent the dog from making any further noice. Betty was shocked and quickly knocked the door and called for the house owner to open the door. We saw paints on the door frame (A tell-off that the house has taken a loan from loan sharks before) thus I took a n iron rod which was placed outside the house for security reasons. We tried to negotiate with the person and reasoning but came to nought. No one replied but we are sure there are people in there. We decided to call the police to help us retrieve the dog. We checked with the neighbours to get some info on the resident of that unit and hoped that the information may come handy.

We waited for the policemen to come but it seems that they are taking a long time. I called William (Church friend) for back-up as I am there with 3 other ladies i.e. my sis, Diana,and Betty. Shortly, I saw a middle aged man walking towards the unit 12-203 direction and I asked him whether he lives there. He said, why am I there and what do I want. While we are talking, I can see another man followed after him and this guy was kinda tall and well built and dressed in black. At this point I was kinda fearful that these people might be from the triads or something, so I immediately tell the middle aged man "A" that I only want the dog back and nothing else.

"How do you know the dog is your dog?" A asked.

"I know! I heard his barking and I am sure he belongs to me!" I replied.

"Looked, we only want the dog back. Here is S$100, take it and treat it as some token for your to buy a drink or something" I offered. "IF you take it, I will cancel the police report I mad"

"If you didn't call the police, I would definitely give it back to you but now that you have called the police, I will not give it back to you already!" A growled.

"Please! IF you take this token now and return the dog back to me I will cancel the report immediately, otherwise they will be here any minute now!" I pleaded him.

Without wasting another minute, I called the police station to tell them that I have madea mistake in the unit and asked them to call-back their patrol. Then I proceed to speak to A and the big guy "B". There are another two person there, one an auntie and the other a young lady.

"Why do you have to come at this time?? It is very late and you have scared my mother! She is sick and is alone! Why are you holding rods??" A asked.

"I am sorry, its my fault. Here take this money as a token and let us have the dog" I offered him again while at the same time slapping my own face as a form of apology.

He then relented and allowed us to bring back the dog and upon seeing Bon Bon, Betty and my sister burst into tears! I kept insisting them to keep the money but they would not and said its
OK and tell us to take good care of Bon Bon.

I was once lost but now am found.

Welcome home Bon Bon! Thank you everyone for your help and concern. We looked forward to many happy and joyful days with Bon Bon at our side.

**Note: All rights reserved. If you like any photos found in this blog or would like to engage me in any assignment, please e-mail me for more details at seage79@gmail.com.