Bon Bon, where are you?

It seems like I have never blogged about my cute furkid, Bon Bon before and it is with deep regrets and sorrow that I will have to blog about my precious furkid today in plenty of tears and anguish in my heart. Not having focus and blogging on him as much as I should per "Marley and Me", this is one of the LTs that I have so taken for granted.

How Bon Bon came into Betty and my life is quite incidental albeit life changing. I have had plenty of dogs in my previous 30 years of my life with the first being a mongrel by the name of "Yue Han" (John in chinese) verbatim from the name of the dog in a cartoon serial "Robinson Crusoe's and family" and the irony is that, John is really a bitch. My second dog or rather dogs are the fruit of my persistent tantrum or rather persuasion power. They are Spitz and the first generation are "Xiao Bing" (Lil Ice) and "Xiao Bai" (Lil White) as well as three other generation of offspring with "Fat Fat" being the most impressionable. Lets move on shall we?

Betty has always been a dog lover and on one fateful occasion, we went to a pet shop "Pet Station Holdings" or PSH in Serangoon Gardens and saw this cute little pomeranian pup. PSH has good breed of Poms and as such, their price is also pretty steep ranging from S$2,400 - 3,000+. Somehow, Bon Bon was offerred at a price of S$1,600, which my wife immediately decided to bring him home!

Bon Bon has given us much mixed feelings as much as "Marley" has but yet still holds a very important role in the family. He is such a pampered brat! Loves to whin, hump the toy dog we gave him and above all, to stroll in the park just outside of where we live. Whenever we took out the leash, he will go berserk with excitement and whin non-stop and heck, even at the work "walk-walk" will sent him into a frenzy. My cousin once did a slow spelling of the word "W-A-L-K" and it sent him into a frenzy nonetheless.

I love Bon Bon very much although I might get very angry at him when he always spite me when I never bring him out for a walk in the park. Whenever I leave my house to somewhere else be it for grocery or for other matters, he would always wanted to tag along, which I usually turned him down as I couldn't be bringing a dog into NTUC market, could I? As such, he would deliberately "mark" on the sofa in the living room, in the kitchen and everywhere else to spite me for not bringing him out and my response to this is either the kennel or the pen and occasional reprimanding and sometimes slapping.

Bon Bon is afraid of thunder claps and whenever it happened, he would rush to me for comfort and security. Oh how I miss those times when he relied on me totally for giving him the comfort in his times of fear. I would pick him up, place him on my lap or cuddle him, stroke him and at the same time snuggle him. He has this very distinctive smell that I love too... :'(

He always has this eager or expectant look on his face whenever we call him as though that we are ready to give him a surprise or do something fun with him. Though I did gave him plenty of fun times, I regretted for not given him more, which I could. He have this oh-so-cute look on his face by tilting his head to the left and to the right when you speak to him. Occasionally, he will throw in a wink to it.

Bon Bon sleeps with Betty and I and sometimes when we have forgotten to let him into our room, he will breath very hard from under the door and we know that we have left him out. When I wake up in the morning everyday preparing to get to work, he will wake up with me and would roll over to reveal his belly inviting me to give him a belly rub, which both of us enjoyed really much. After the belly rub, he will hop onto the bed and lie on Betty's feet or side while I make my way out the house.

Betty and I has always treated Bon Bon like we would our child (Perhaps the reason why we got him in the first place - We are not looking forward to have our own child). When we first Bon Bon into our house, he suffered from kennel cough and the situation worried both Betty and I so much that she would cry often because of this. Knowing the cause and the consequences plus assurance from the Vet, only then Betty and I are at ease. Bon Bon has weak stomach and sometimes will eat fibrous material in the house. He would often suffer from diarrhoe and vomiting. Sometimes when it is serious, he would poop or vomit blood. Each of these experiences send our alarm to code red and we will get restless and not able to focus on our work for the day.

Bon Bon has also developed different barks over the short 2 years stint with us. Initial onces are more towards howling, followed by barkling (Bark + howling), the with grunts, falsettos and whins. I recorded one of his eager grunts and bark and has since used it as my handphone SMS ring tone, which I love to bits.

I like his cute short snout, which l would so often do the eskimo kiss with. My wife love to bite his ears (Not actual bite but jsut a light nibble) which he was not particularly fond of. Whenever my wife hugged him and presses her lips near to his ear and mention the word "bite bite", he would jolt violently.

Bon Bon sometimes would leap out the gate when we open the gate as a form of "Bring-me-out-since-I'm-out" sort of "invitation". There was once Betty locked her out of the house accidentally and he waited at the front door. A couple of minutes passed till she realised that Bon Bon is outside and promptly apologise to him and letting him into the house. There are also a couple of occassions that he didn't waited for any of us and make the dash downstairs but was discovered by our neighbours who eventually brought him back up.

On the 5th May 2009 approximately 10+pm, while I was out checking the power meter, Bon Bon is believed to have slipped out of the house and making a dash for the park without me realising it. It is only after 1hr+ or perhaps 2 that I realised that he is not in the house when I call for him. Brace yourself John....

Bon Bon has gone missing since then.

We searched the neighbourhood from 12midnight till 2am+ in vain. We have made a police report, called the SPCA and AVA.

On 6th May 2009, I took half day off to print flyers (300 posters as of today) to paste around the neighbourhood. Around 1pm, I received a call from the SPCA informing me that the neighbourhood police centre has found a dog and Morgan, the guy from SPCA said that this most likely is Bon Bon. I was overjoyed to hear that I called Betty immediately with hints of joyful laugher in between my telephone conversation. I rushed to the police station from the bus stop with Betty from the house. To our dismay, the lost dog is actually not one dog but 2 dogs! They are 2 Golden Retrievers. To this, Betty couldn't hold her disappointment and tears ran down her cheeks. The sight of her weeping so bitterly breaks my heart to a million pieces. The search continues...

In the late afternoon, I pasted near to 100 posters and 2 eye-witnesses (EW) claimed that they have seen Bon Bon the night he went missing at about 11pm+. EW 1 and her husband actually saw Bon Bon galivanting in the park. They hugged Bon Bon while waiting for the owners i.e. yours truly to turn up but we never did. As they have 1 big mongrel and a Jack Russell in their house, they didn't bring Bon Bon back home. Bon Bon followed two youngers around, which gave EW 1 the wrong idea that they are the owner.

Bon Bon is extremely friendly with no reservation towards strangers. One of Betty's ex-colleagues called Bon Bon the Over-Friendly dog. That trait alone makes him hard to locate.

In the early evening, I went to the print shop to make another 200 copies of the posters and proceeded to pass them to the Vets and Pet shops around the vicinity. I received a call from EW 2 who lives somewhere below my block that she saw Bon Bon at around 12+ midnight. Bon Bon went to the front of her house and EW 2's pet schnauzher engage Bon Bon in a barking match which Bon Bon apparently just gave the cute left-right tilting look. EW 2 brought her schnauzer to the park for a walk and after completing one round, no longer seeing Bon Bon in sight. She was very remorseful and apologised profusely to me, which is really not her fault but her kind heart was stricken due to the missed opportunity to return Bon Bon to his rightful owner. I thanked her and ask her not to feel bad about it.

In the evening, I combed 3 HDB blocks together with Diana (Betty's cousin) in search of Bon Bon but all in vain. My housemate, Pooi See and my sister, Ping later joined us to comb door-to-door in one of the HDB block, which also yielded no results. We completed the combing at 930pm and proceeded home for dinner. Brian (Betty's cousin) has helped us post a notice on the internet and his blog (http://dodo-sausagedog.blogspot.com/) on Bon Bon's missing. After dinner, I read Brian's blog and this triggers my tear to flow as the photo taken by Brian of Bon Bon reminds me how much I missed him and how helpless I felt for not being able to find him.

Later around 1030pm, Betty came home and we again launch a search mission for Bon Bon. We walk around the neighbourhood asking people and shouting Bon Bon's name with hope that he will respond with a bark or two. At about 12+ midnight, EW 3 (Evon) called and notified me that she saw a dog similar to Bon Bon that day itself around 7-8pm while walking her golden retriever. She last saw Bon Bon at Block 114's green patch at the car park area. This gives us a glimmer of hope that Bon Bon is still in the surrounding vicinity. We continue our search and combed the area block-by-block while shouting Bon Bon's name but it all turns out futile.

At around 130am, at Block 113, we receive respond from our shouts and the barking seemed so like that of Bon Bon's! We keep shouting and the neighbour woke up, look at us, switch off the lights and then we no longer hear any barking in response to our shouts. We venture up the unit at 3rd floor and try to look for signs that Bon Bon was there but found no convincing evidence. We then called the police and try to get them to come down to help us verify whether the dog in that unit is Bon Bon or otherwise. The police helpdesk personnel advised us to do the verification in the morning instead as it is 2am+ into the night already, which we did. Betty woke up at 430am and do one round of checking on that unit. At 630am, we managed to get the police there and to do the verification. The dog in that unit turned out to be a pomeranian! Unfortunately, this pom is not Bon Bon but another pom, which explains the similarity in the barking style. Betty couldn't hold her tears and weep again. I hold her in my arms...

This morning 7th May 2009, Betty continued to go around the vicinity and hope lady luck shines upon her. She asked neighbours and passerby hoping that she would obtain some new lead. One indian guy said that he saw Bon Bon at block 127 at around 930am, which both Betty and I are sceptical. She asked the man whether Bon Bon is wearing any collar to which he replied "yeah yeah yeah!" but later said "No". Bon Bon has no collar on as he slipped out from the house. So its just a sick man with a sick intention.

I have make an advertisement today for Friday 8th May 2009 on the Straits Times. Hopefully this will help although both Betty and I knew that the golden hour has long passed and the possiblity of finding Bon Bon is near zero. He is such a cute dog and it is no surprise that someone has took him home. Our hope is that should someone took him home, hopefully the fodo they feed him will give him diarrhoe and forced them to take Bon Bon to the vet. I have e-mail blast to plenty of Vets to keep an eye out for Bon Bon, hopefully this will yield results down the road.

We will have one more round of "combing" exercise this evening and have enlisted friends' help. Hopefully we will see some results. Please pray for me.

Bon Bon, where are you? Daddy and mummy missed you so so much!

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