Earlier this week, nineteen-year old dog Fu Tsai was reunited with his owners after two weeks of going solo, in a heart-warming tale to get you through hump day.
On March 1, a nineteen-year old Shiba Inu mix named Fu Tsai went missing near Nam Shan in Sai Kung. Posters were made and Hong Kong’s many dog lovers spread the word over various Facebook groups.
The original post on Facebook
Fu Tsai had a lot of eyes on the lookout for him but after two weeks with no responses or sightings, it seemed as if all hope was lost for the beloved elderly dog ever being found again.
One of the posters put up after he was lost
The finder first spotted Fu Tsai whilst walking his own four dogs through Sai Kung’s Long Mei area. He said he saw “a rather bedraggled-looking, old, white dog” resting in the dirt. After seeing that the dog had a collar he tried to approach it, but the scared old canine retreated into a nearby bush.
The finder, who decided it would be better to leave him for now, took the best photos he could and posted them onto the Facebook group “Sai Kung Marketplace“. After a bit of scrolling, the finder found a post that another user had shared about a lost dog resembling the one he had spotted – it was Fu Tsai!
“After a near miss with my dodgy language skills, I finally got in touch with a friend of the owner who confirmed the identity of the dog – Fu Tsai – and we arranged to meet immediately so we could search for him,” said the anonymous finder, speaking to local animal rights activist Karen Baretto, who shared the story in Facebook group “Hong Kong Dog Owners“.
And so the dog hunt began.
Fu Tsai, when he was first spotted
The dog’s elderly owners, who were a little past the days of running through the forest on a mad hunt for elusive animals, waited in the car whilst the finder returned to the spot he had seen Fu Tsai in earlier. Much to his dismay, Fu Tsai was no longer hiding in the bushes and had further wandered in an unknown direction.
“Unfortunately, after a couple of hours of hunting, we couldn’t find him,” the finder said. “We left some food and a towel with the owners’ scent at the site and met back at the village where we’d left them. It was heart breaking to tell the old couple we couldn’t find him, I’d been certain that we’d find him close to where I saw him last.”
Fu Tsai before he went missing
It wasn’t a completely gloomy outlook for the couple though – upon returning to Sai Kung the finder was informed by a local passerby that Fu Tsai had been seen at a local football field.
The finder went to the field to find Fu Tsai settling himself nicely – safe and sound.
“Lo and behold, there he is, tucked up safe under a bush by the fence at the football field,” the finder recalled. “That was a good moment… it got even better after Fu Tsai realised his owners were the strange people who were crying rather loudly in relief just a short distance from him…”
Fu Tsai looking happy inside the taxi immediately after being found
The finder and a couple other volunteers managed to catch the dog – while keeping aggressive local dogs at bay – and carried the “emaciated” pet back to his relieved and overjoyed owners.
“It was a very emotional reunion as you can imagine,” the finder said. “That is a long time for an old friend to be out in the cold and rain and no food.”
You can just imagine the cheesy background music playing as Fu Tsai realises his owners had finally found him, with the finder crediting the happy ending to “a little good luck, community spirit and social media”.
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