I grew up with so many different dog breeds all my life but for some reason, I never had a golden retriever.
I used to hear about how they were so sweet-natured, super friendly and amazing around kids.
These were not the best choice of dogs if you wanted them to guard your property. In fact, people joked that if a burglar showed up on your doorstep, golden retrievers would probably show them to the safe – tail wagging and all.
So you can imagine my surprise to see a lone golden retriever at a traffic junction in Kepong, trying to cross the road.
This happened years ago when I was on my way home one night. I literally had to hit the brakes to avoid running over him as he strolled past the front of my car.
He wasn’t exactly street smart and it concerned me how he was walking on the main road. He didn’t have a collar on him but he was a pedigree dog.
He couldn’t possibly be a stray, I was thinking. He was seriously not equipped to be roaming around. Most stray dogs knew how to avoid danger and oncoming traffic.
I had already driven past him but I couldn’t shake off this guilty feeling about leaving him there. He was a golden retriever after all, and he looked utterly lost.
It was well past midnight and I was dying to get home but I was so disturbed by the sight of him that I pulled over and got my uncle to call out to him. I just wanted to make sure this dog was going to be alright before carrying on my journey.
Surprisingly, he came running and that’s when I noticed his paws were bleeding. He came rushing towards my car, though we were total strangers.
My heart raced in alarm when he came towards the driver’s side and looked at me through the window, trying to make contact. He was standing in the middle of the road and there was simply no way I could leave him there.
Those big, innocent-looking eyes were all I needed to make a sudden, impulsive decision to bring him home. I knew I would have to work out how best to find his owner or rehome him.
At the time, I lived with three pugs. Pugs always look confused but they looked completely puzzled by the sight of this new big dog in our small garden.
I hoped they could learn some lessons in manners from this sweet golden retriever as he was so well behaved, never barked and understood basic instructions. I realised when I said “sit” to our pugs, he immediately sat down too.
Nevertheless, I gave him a bath and took him to the vet to get his paws treated. It amazed me how well-behaved and quiet he was, even throughout a bath.
Since the day I rescued him, I diligently posted his picture on every conceivable dog site I could find; I even put it up on my own Instagram and Facebook pages.
But when no one came forward after a few days, I was really starting to worry about his fate.
I started making calls to find him a new home, worrying that the longer he stayed with me, the more I would want to keep him.
I was already getting attached to this amazingly sweet dog but I knew I couldn’t take him in. I had my hands full with my own dogs.
On the third night, I was really fretting about where his real owners were. Did they want him?
Surely, such a nice dog could not have been abandoned despite the fact that he had no collar. As I was sitting with him in my garden, wondering what his name was, he suddenly touched my hand with his paw. I had no idea he could do that!
When I extended my other palm, he placed his other paw in my hand and we “shook hands”. I had this strong feeling he did have a family out there who cared about him and I prayed they would find him.
That very night, I received a text message about my Facebook post and was asked to call a number someone saw on a poster because it looked like the same dog.
I called the number and the person who picked up said that she’d been crying her eyes out for three days, unable to sleep.
Apparently, she had taken time off work to stick posters of her missing golden retriever all over the neighbourhood, but I never saw this and she never saw my posts on social media either.
How amazing that a stranger saw both our “advertisements” on-ground and online, and connected us.
In the middle of the night, the distraught owner came to my house with her husband and was reunited with “Momo”. I finally found out his name and his tail was wagging away like crazy when they came to collect him.
As it turns out, he’s deathly afraid of thunder and lightning and he had escaped from their house in disorientation and sheer fright when nobody was in. He must have got lost on the streets.
I’m so glad I found his real owners. We don’t hear stories that have happy endings every day, but this was one of them.
He looked back at me before he left my house and I’m pretty sure it was his way of saying thanks.
Jojo Struys is an animal lover, author and the founder of ‘OHANAJO awake’, an online conscious platform to help people with their stress, anxiety and sleep. Enjoy daily meditations, yoga, sound baths and wisdom on the go in less than 15 mins per day. Please visit www.ohanajo.com for a free trial.