Written by Kay-Lee Hallé
Professional photography by Jessica Heaver and Carol Heaver
We decided to spend the long weekend at our favourite place in the world, a place Duggie knows and loves best: Umngazana.
The journey begins
We left our home in Paddock, KwaZulu-Natal, to embark on the four-hour journey, late on Friday the 29th of April, once we’d all finished work. Our beloved Jack Russell dogs, Gus, Tom, Jeff and Dug, joined us on the trip. We’d made them a comfy bed in our bakkie’s canopy and they happily jumped in, excited to head off on vacation with us. Although our dogs don’t usually travel in the canopy, we were full up and squashed into one car and, as they’re very familiar with travelling in there and we’d made it comfortable and secure, we didn’t think twice.
We made a pit stop at Deemount Store, near the Gun’s Drift Road entrance in Harding, to pick up our friend Lara Bouverie. At this stage, all four dogs were still safely ensconced on their cosy bed in the canopy, and we hit the road, looking forward to reaching our destination.
Out in the wilderness
It was a long and challenging trip, and it got dark very quickly. We arrived at Umngazana at about 20h30 that evening. We eagerly hopped out and opened the canopy to let the dogs out. To our disbelief and utter horror, only three of our babies were in the back. Dug was gone.
Our hearts dropped. We couldn’t believe it. We honestly didn’t know what to think. I still said to my dad that I was sure Dug had only just hopped out and was off sniffing somewhere nearby. Once we realised that this wasn’t the reality, we hit panic.
Dug is an adventure-seeking, brave and sneaky little fella. Like most Jack Russells, he’s very nimble and can jump high. We realised quickly that he must have gotten out of the tiny gap in the canopy window that we’d left cracked slightly open for air. It was the smallest gap, and we had no idea how he’d done this. He must have used one of the bags to give him a boost and squeezed himself through the window.
We couldn’t recall having stopped during the long, dark trip from Harding, so Dug could be anywhere along the journey. The Wild Coast is a vast and rural place. Our hearts were so sore not knowing where Duggie was and if he was alive and well.
Lost in Lusikisiki?
We quickly created a post on Facebook and shared it to as many groups as we could. We had an unbelievable response and people shared Dug’s picture and information far and wide.
We thought back and realised that we had, in fact, stopped for about two minutes in heavy traffic in Lusikisiki town. Suddenly we had hope: Dug possibly may have jumped out there. My parents quickly hopped into their car and drove back there. Unfortunately, despite spending hours looking and calling, they found no trace of our plucky little dog. We went to bed with very heavy hearts that night.
The next morning we were all up early. None of us could sleep. That feeling of the unknown and being so helpless is the worst…
A needle in a haystack
My dad decided to retrace his route back to the Gun’s Drift Road entrance to see if he could find Dug somewhere along the way. He soon realised that it’s such a vast area that the search would be virtually impossible. Finding Dug on our own would be similar to finding a needle in a haystack, especially as we didn’t know which area he was in.
We needed to get flyers out to the communities and towns as soon as possible to spread the word.
My husband, Josh, printed hundreds of flyers at home and met my dad at the Magusheni turn-off. Lara’s parents, Kim and Janine, also joined in on the search along the Gun’s Drift Road. My dad drove the route back and handed out flyers in all the towns.
I suddenly remembered seeing a local community member’s post about their lost dog on the South Coast and had read that they’d used an animal communicator. The community member shared her contacts with me.
Dug tells us where he is
We contacted Albé Albertyn from Deer Heart Connection, who’s an animal communicator from Cape Town. We explained Dug’s circumstances and she explained the animal communicating process. She got to work with Dug straight away, and we were consoled to hear that Duggie was alive and ok. She told us why he’d jumped out the window and gave us several beacons that Dug had seen in his surroundings over the last twelve hours. We were still convinced he jumped out in Lusikisiki, and my dad spent the rest of the day searching the town.
Over the long weekend, we continued to search for Dug in Lusikisiki town while working closely with Albé, who continued to give us beacons to look out for and reassured us that Duggie was ok and waiting for us to find him.
Unfortunately, days of searching brought no luck. We’d done everything possible, from walking the town on foot, taking our other dogs with us, handing out flyers everywhere, to phoning every vet and animal organisation. No one had seen Dug; no one had phoned with a possible sighting of him.
Monday came and it was time to leave Umngazana. However, my parents refused to go and stayed to continue the search. They went out again, searched high and low, but without luck. By now, they’d searched Lusikisiki for three days to no avail. My parents decided to move their search further down towards the next town, Flagstaff.
A new lead to follow
Then, on Tuesday the 3rd of May, I received a call from a friend who’d shared Dug’s story with her employee who works in the Gun’s Drift area in the hope that he could share it with community members. Sakhile, a manager, had contacted him and said that his driver had seen a dog like Dug running along the Gun’s Drift dirt road that very Friday that he went missing. Instantly, we had hope again. This was the first positive sighting of Duggie that we’d been hoping and praying for.
My parents immediately moved their search to the area.
We spent the next eight days searching the Gun’s Drift area and surrounding villages of Sitezi, Elangeni and Pisgah. My dad went out every day, both on a bike and on foot, in search of Dug. He never gave up hope. He knew Duggie was out there and was waiting to be found. Albé was amazing and kept communicating with Dug on a daily basis and reassured us that he was alive and on the move. Albé said we were on the right track and kept us motivated to find our boy. She kept asking Dug to please approach a kind person whom he trusts who’d then call us. We handed out flyers to community members, schools and spaza shops.
By now, the word had spread amongst the surrounding communities and people knew our family and all about the “famous” missing Duggie. We had several phone calls from people saying they’d seen Dug but from a distance. We also had a few pictures being sent to us of dogs very similar looking to Dug but which were much larger. The week passed with no luck of finding our Duggie.
Carrying on the search
The weekend came and we decided to search as a family. We all went out – all six of us with our three other fur babies. We searched from sunrise to sunset and clocked many kilometres on foot calling out for Dug. We continued to get tip-offs from people saying they’d seen Dug, but nothing came of them.
By this stage we were all feeling very despondent. We headed home, not knowing what else to do except wait for Duggie to listen to Albé and approach someone who’d help.
The following week came and my parents were due to leave on a trip to the Kalahari which had been pre-planned and booked. My parents were unsure if they should go or cancel – they didn’t want to give up on finding Dug. We assured them that we’d carry on the search and that when they got home, Duggie would be back. My parents left with very heavy hearts.
Finally, we got some good news: Josh received a call from Sakhile again late on Tuesday, the 10th of May, confirming his driver had once again seen Duggie running along the road alongside the gum tree plantations heading from Pisgah towards Harding. Lara and her family confirmed that this area was in fact their farm, and they immediately headed out in search for him.
We were so hopeful to finally have a strong lead and hoped and prayed our Duggie would be found soon. I contacted Albé with the news and she immediately connected with Dug. She confirmed that the area he’d been in that day matched the one that Sakhile had described. She again encouraged him to listen for his name and for the sound of cars and bikes looking for him.
Look behind you…
Dug wasn’t found that night. But, the following morning, on Wednesday the 11th of May, Sakhile phoned again; his driver had spotted Dug near their homestead, not too far from where he’d been seen the previous day. Lara and her mom, Janine, decided to head out straight away as Josh and I couldn’t get there immediately to search. Lara suggested taking the Rhino instead of their van, because Dug is familiar with it as we have one.
Lara and Janine headed out on the Rhino towards the area Sakhile’s driver had described. They searched and called without success. They then decided to head three plantations down and stopped the Rhino to call for a while.
Janine had been practising her “Duggie-Duggie-Duggie” call that my mom had voice-noted to her. She called and called. They were met with deathly silence. Not a sound was heard. After about 20 minutes they decided to head off. As Lara was driving, something told her to look behind her. She turned around – and saw Dug running after them.
Lara slowed the Rhino to a stop. She and Janine couldn’t believe it: at long last, Duggie was at their side. They’d found him – or, rather, he’d found them. They shed many tears of joy and held onto him tight.
He fell from Heaven
They called us to share the miraculous news. We were overjoyed and immediately contacted my parents, who could barely speak as they were so emotional. After a long and hard twelve-day search for one small dog in a big wilderness, and through faith, perseverance, kindness and community support, he’d been found unharmed and, ironically, on our friend’s farm.
Lara said after finding him that “it was like he just fell from Heaven”.
Josh, along with Gus, Tom and Jeff, collected Dug, who was so excited to see him and his fur buddies. Duggie received the all-clear from our vet the next day.
We’re so happy to have our beloved fur family member home safe. Dug’s story is nothing short of miraculous, and we can’t thank everyone enough for their support, kind words, prayers and suggestions. Duggie had a huge team rooting for him, and he certainly was on a lot of people’s minds. Without the help of the community members looking for him, Sakhile and his staff, the Bouverie family and Albé, we wouldn’t have Duggie with us today.
We (especially my dad) never gave up on Duggie, and that, along with faith and perseverance, is the key. Dug certainly had a very adventurous 12 days out, but he remained brave and strong and knew his family was looking for him.
May Duggie’s story inspire you to never give up. The impossible is sometimes very possible!
