Written by Professor Theo Villion
Professional photography by MAXAA Photography Studio
An unbelievable freak accident led to an incredible two-week search for a dog named Bella, through rough terrain, involving thousands of online supporters, infra-red drone footage, animal welfare, and the farming community. This is the story of how a seemingly impossible challenge became a miracle…
A day like any other
Theo and Etricia Villion were heading home from Randpark to Bloemfontein – a journey of over 400km – when the freak accident resulted in an unbelievable series of events.
Theo says, “We would like to share this incredible story with people out there who might be looking for a lost pet and feel that there is no hope.
“We learnt from scratch that we serve an Almighty, merciful, forgiving and powerful God to whom miracles are always a possibility, even when we lose faith.
“The drama that resulted in the search and rescue of our beloved baby, Bella, started with a normal road trip home. It was a day like any other when I left Randpark High School in Johannesburg on Monday, 7 May 2018, where I’d lectured that morning; I picked up my wife, Etricia, and Bella, our Pit Bull, from a friend’s house and we headed home to Bloemfontein.
“Approximately 15km after we drove through the Vaal Plaza tollgate near Sasolburg, on the N1, disaster struck in ways that a lot of people described as unreal and unheard of.”
The window shattered in a freak accident
Theo explains that Bella had been standing up against the back-door window, barking merrily at passing trucks, which she normally does.
“A large truck thundered past our car,” recalls Theo, “and we heard a loud noise that we couldn’t decipher. Instinctively, we looked to the back of the vehicle for Bella and realised to our absolute horror that the window where she’d been standing was shattered… and our beautiful Bella was nowhere to be seen.
“We braked hard, as did the truck behind us. It turned out that the truck driver was the only witness who could describe what actually happened. Due to the traumatic circumstances, we unfortunately never got his name or number before he got back into his truck and left. It just didn’t cross our minds at that stage to be practical and sensible.”
Her empty collar dangled from the window
The Villions were in shock; says Theo, “All that was left behind on the back seat were the remnants of the shattered window and her leash attached to the seatbelt; her collar dangled out of the window.
“We’d been travelling at 120km per hour and, with the force of the wind and speed, Bella had literally fallen right out of her collar.
“The truck driver described seeing Bella hit the tarmac, then roll and bounce a couple of times over the road and into the thick bush on the opposite side of the road. That was probably part of her saving grace as there were more trucks passing us by at the time and, had she remained lying on the road, she could have been hit head-on by one of them.
“Apparently she got up and ran as if she was being chased by the devil himself, right into the dense grass and bush on the side of the road.”
Nowhere to be found
“We ran around hysterically, in a daze, with feelings of total disbelief and unreality. We called her name over and over, combing the long grass and bushes for kilometres in all directions, and found nothing.
“The accident had happened around 14h00 and we continued on foot up to when the sun went down. Refusing to leave the area, we overnighted in Sasolburg, arranged by Andra Karsten, Etricia’s niece, and resumed our search on Tuesday morning at 06h00.
“Etricia’s brother-in-law stopped on his way to a meeting in Johannesburg to assist us, returning the next day on his way back to Bloemfontein to search with us. He and Etricia’s sister returned again at a later stage to try and assist. Two of Etricia’s sisters drove all the way from Pretoria to assist with the search, but to no avail. Still, Bella was nowhere to be found.”
Helping hands
When Trudy, of Animal Rescue Sasolburg, received the call late that Monday, she immediately posted the story on all Facebook groups and SPCA sites and contacted the Vanderbijlpark and Parys SPCAs. When on Tuesday morning there was still no sign of Bella, Trudy headed out to meet Theo near the toll, reaching him by 10h00 and searching until late afternoon.
Then Trudy was contacted by Werner, a drone pilot, who wanted to offer his help. Given the density of the bush and size of the area to be covered, he suggested using an infra-red camera on the aircraft after sunset; provided that she was still alive, the camera would pick up her body heat.
Everyone waited in anticipation, praying that this would be the answer…
Infra-red results
To their disappointment, nothing was found. Says Theo, “With heavy hearts, we departed for Bloemfontein at 19h00 in order to replace the broken window, which another one of Etricia’s sisters and her husband volunteered to pay for.
“However, unbeknown to us, Werner continued the search after our departure. He photographed a dog-shaped animal lying on its side very close to the Vaal Plaza – and we knew it had to be alive, otherwise the infra-red camera wouldn’t have detected it.
“Trudy sent us the drone picture but there was no absolute certainty that it was Bella. She went to see if they could locate the animal in the picture and we returned from Bloemfontein to join the search but found nothing.”
Returning home empty-handed
Trudy and the Villions went out looking for Bella every day but found no trace.
They talked to everyone they met, put up posters everywhere, and took to the dusty backroads to distribute posters and information to farmers and the local auctioneer, who was located close to the toll area; they drove up and down the long R59 towards Parys and back on the N1.
By now, the Villion’s finances and time were running low; they were forced to return home. Theo says, “The next morning (day five) we went back to the accident scene where we left Bella’s blanket and some food in the hope that she might return, but to no avail; everything was still untouched.”
Silos in the distance
The couple turned their car towards home. The mood was gloomy when, later that day, Etricia spotted silos on the eastern side of the N1 at a distance.
Says Theo, “She insisted that we drive there. I wasn’t too happy with the idea as we had limited time and petrol to return to Bloemfontein, but we did it in faith. Arriving at the silos, we met the manager, explained what happened and left a poster of Bella at the registration point for all the truck drivers.
“Driving back, my heart was torn in two and Etricia had to calm me down. We were both devastated beyond words; we went through the motions to get home in a daze, with a feeling of complete unreality.
“Surely, this only happens in science fiction movies? The thought of never seeing our baby again hung like a dark mist over us. We were not prepared to accept that, even as a remote possibility.”
Keeping hope alive
“To add insult to injury, Etricia had ended up losing her multifocal prescription glasses during the search. To add a bit of humour in all this despair, this resulted in her now watching TV with her prescription sunglasses, making quite a ‘spectacle’ of herself! She woke up one morning with the image of a cow out in the veldt somewhere with her glasses on who now has the vision to read, work on a computer, watch TV and drive a car…
“That’s her warped sense of humour coming through, which kept us going when we sometimes felt there was no hope left.”
A WhatsApp group, Bella Update, had been started by a dear friend of the Villions the moment she and her mother heard of Bella’s accident. Theo and Etricia found the group invaluable: “We had ongoing support and prayers via the people on this group 24/7. It was really heart-warming and an inspiration at times when we just about gave up on the search and/or prospect to ever find Bella again.”
“Most people told us they had little or no hope of us ever finding her alive. This really hurt, but it made us even more determined to find Bella alive. Although hope and faith had started dwindling, we were adamant: no matter what it takes, we were not prepared to give up until we found her, alive or otherwise.”
A sniffer dog joins the search
When a tracker contacted the Villions offering to use his sniffer dog to try and find Bella, they were filled with renewed hope.
Says Theo, “Although our finances were down to zero, we did this in good faith; we were desperate. We returned to the accident scene on Wednesday, 16 May 2018, after being contacted by a tracker who assured us that his sniffer dog would find Bella.
“We took along Bella’s blankets for the sniffer dog to detect Bella’s scent and met where the drone picture had been taken; with a lot of hope and anticipation, the tracker dog, Max, was released. But after eight hours of non-stop searching and no success we called it a day.
“Totally drained and with feelings of despair, we slept in our car at Engen One Stop and resumed our search (without the tracker) the following day. Finally, we had just enough petrol to make it back to Bloemfontein.”
I’ve got Bella
Exactly 14 days after the freak accident that took Bella away from them, everything changed. Theo was sitting in front of his computer at home when the phone rang.
He recalls, “It was Monday 21 May 2018 at around 09:00; the caller introduced himself as Jack and said: ‘I’ve got Bella.’
“On asking, he said he was from the Parys area, and when I requested a photo, he quickly SMSed it to me: it was undoubtedly Bella. Our girl was in an enclosure, very skinny and looked like she was in pain.” But it was her – and she was alive…
Theo immediately phoned Trudy in Sasolburg, sent her the photo and, elated, she volunteered to pick Bella up while the Villions made arrangements to get to Sasolburg.
The nightmare was over
Theo and Etricia headed out immediately. Says Theo, “Friends and family members kindly donated funds in order for us to get there. Meanwhile, Trudy phoned, saying they had Bella and were rushing her to the Animaland Vet in Sasolburg.
“Bella was filthy dirty, underweight and had scrapes and open wounds all over her body; she was infested with ticks and covered with blood and cow dung. After a bath at the vet’s rooms she was examined, given an injection, medicine for ticks, treated for the cuts and abrasions and discharged.”
Coincidentally, Etricia had sent an email to Animaland the previous day, asking if they’d treated a dog like Bella. Theo recalls that Dr Christa replied, encouraging us not to give up hope – that we would find her. Of all the emails we’d sent out to vets in the area, it was the only one which had received a response. As it turned out, Dr Christa was the vet who took care of Bella the next day...
“We arrived three hours later and were reunited with Bella. The nightmare was over. Bella could come home,” recalls Theo.
Meant to be
Incredibly, it was the very last place they’d looked where Bella was eventually found: “When I asked Trudy where they’d met Jack, thinking that he may live in Parys or an informal settlement, she said: ‘At the silos – that’s where Jack works.’ I couldn’t believe my ears.
“Had I refused to go to the silos that last day when Etricia insisted, had we not left Bella’s picture with my contact details behind, we most likely would never have found her. In our minds, this was God at work and a modern-day miracle.
“We returned to Bloemfontein the next day (after overnighting in Pretoria to monitor whether Bella would be strong enough to endure the long trip to Bloemfontein). We are so blessed by Bella getting stronger day by day. The first time she barked was like music to our ears. After fourteen days of hell, our baby’s nightmare was over.
“We would like to extend a special word of thanks to all family members, friends as well as everyone and anyone that was involved in the search and rescue of Bella.”
How Bella was adopted is just as unlikely a story. Theo explains that, when he and Etricia went to view a cottage they were considering moving into, a then six-month-old Bella – who belonged to someone else – attacked him as he tried to get out of the car. Bella had been rescued from people who were training her (as a puppy) for dog fighting.
A month later, when Bella’s owner had to move, she asked us if we would consider adopting one of her six dogs (of which Bella was one) as she couldn’t take all of them along. Theo immediately knew who to adopt: “Because of her feisty spirit, I did not hesitate for a minute: I chose Bella.”
