This is a two-part story about how I lost my pet dog Scruffy but found him again through social media.

(Read Part One if you haven't already. And be appreciative that there is actually a Part Two, because it's very characteristic of me to not finish what I started!)

This part will follow the story of how Scruffy came to be found and kept safe with his host family. Minute details may not be exact because all of the information was extracted from the conversation I had with Dolly and Auntie Teresa.

THE STORY'S CHARACTERS

Before I talk about how it all started, you'll need to familiarize yourself with the characters in this story.



HOW IT ALL STARTED

On Monday, November 2nd, Neighbour X was taking a walk when he saw a cute dog sniffing about the bushes and wandering around. There was no tag, no leash and no collar. Just a furry, clueless dog among the greenery.

He sat down nearby and offered some bread to the dog. Slowly but cautiously, the dog ate the bread, and gradually warmed up to the stranger.

After 30 minutes of observation, the dog didn't budge from his playground, and nobody came to claim him, so Neighbour X concluded that it was a stray or lost dog.

He brought it back home with him.

A NEW EXPERIENCE

Now, Neighbour X has not had a pet dog before.

He soon realised that it was quite a handful to take care of an animal that he did not have experience in handling.

Although the lost dog was tame and of minimal fuss, he thought it would be better to hand it over to someone who would be a better candidate to take care of it.

AUNTIE TERESA THE SAVIOUR

Auntie Teresa was skeptical when Neighbour X first approached her with the new responsibility. She wasn't sure if her dog Jewel would get along well with it, or if she was even capable of taking care of two dogs.

But upon hearing Neighbour X's intentions to give the dog away to some workers' dormitory, she decided to give the lost dog a place in her home.

DOLLY SHOWS OFF HER NEW PET

The family soon realised that both dogs got along really well. The new dog was also settling in comfortably and did not shiver like the first day that he did.

Dolly invited her best friend, Sweetie over to play with her new dog.

Sweetie asked, "What are you going to name him?"

But Dolly wasn't sure. Somehow she knew that the dog wouldn't stay long with her, and she wasn't ready to grow attached to it and then suffer a heartache later.

So she left it nameless.

SWEETIE RETURNS HOME

That very night, Sweetie returned home and decided to surf some blogs.

Dolly claimed that Sweetie is not a regular reader of Xiaxue. But that night, Sweetie logged on to view Xiaxue's blog.

At that very moment, she saw the retweet on Xiaxue's live twitter feed (which honestly gets updated and pushed down really fast because of Xiaxue's constant flood of tweets).



She decided to click on the link and staring back at her was a dog that looked like the dog she was playing with just moments ago!


SWEETIE CALLS DOLLY

Sweetie called Dolly at once to inform her that she might have found the lost dog's owner.

Together, they traced back the tweets and found my blog.

DOLLY CONTACTS ME

Dolly sent me two emails, and added me on Facebook with the message that she might have found Scruffy.

But her efforts were fruitless simply because I was by my mobile all the time, expecting people to call via the posters we put up.

I was out most of the time putting up posters and talking to people. I was NOT expecting someone to email me and checking Facebook was the least of my concerns at that time.

Finally, Dolly had to send me public message through my chat box - and even then it took me half a day to spot it because my blog was the last place I'd look for clues of Scruffy's disappearance.

I MEET SCRUFFY'S SAVIOURS

So I responded to the message, and I met Auntie Teresa and Dolly, who are about the nicest people I have met.

They truly loved Scruffy and I'm so glad Scruffy was in good hands all the while.

I INFORM THE ANXIOUS TWITTERWORLD

By now everyone was anxious to know if I'd found Scruffy.

I let out a tweet that it IS Scruffy and once again I was flooded with congratulatory tweets!



THE MOST AMAZING EXPERIENCE

I have worked in the social media scene for about two years now, but this is by far the most spectacular experience ever.

I want to thank everybody who helped tweeted and create the awareness, and Wendy who picked it up too.

I'm glad I have Scruffy back and my next task now is to get him a collar whether he likes it or not, and formulate a new pee routine :)