Written by Tania Henkel
Professional photography by Meraki Photos
When hijackers sped off with Sebastian and Stevie, one of my worst fears was realised…
On the 3rd of May my two dogs, Sebastian and Stevie, and I were hijacked at gunpoint near Clayville, Olifantsfontein. While the hijackers did give me an opportunity to get my dogs out once I asked them to have a heart, the dogs were unwilling to jump out. I watched in horror as my car disappeared into the distance with my precious dogs in the back.
Search ends in sadness
The first search was based on the last location of my phone, which was taken with my car. However, this was to no avail.
On Mother’s Day my husband realised that Google Maps had recorded the full trip the hijackers had taken. I had pamphlets printed that had been designed by a very kind woman, Tanya, who’s part of the Xara’s Army rescue group. We then posted pamphlets along the route until we came to a point in a field where the route showed the hijackers had driven in and out. We assumed the dogs had been dropped off in this field.
We were proven correct when interviewing the locals in the area. I was told my dogs had spent the day wandering the area, returning at night to the point where they’d been dropped off. I was even shown the shallow hole Stevie had made to lie in.
It was only a few days later, after yet another search, that we discovered Stevie’s body. He’d unfortunately crossed the big field away from the quiet neighbourhood in which he’d been dropped and landed in a busy area. Stevie was night blind, and we suspect he’d been moving early in the morning and didn’t realise he was on a busy road, where he was hit and killed. The man who’d removed his body from the road and placed him in a river/sewer amongst rubbish showed us where he was.
We were beyond devastated, and we took his body back to the farm where I work, a farm he truly loved. I’d promised that when his time came (thinking old age) I’d bury him in his happy place. I’m grateful I was able to keep this promise. But Sebastian was still out there…
A ray of hope
After countless days of searching by me, friends, strangers and even a sniffer dog, I had magnets printed for any willing taxi driver to put on their vehicles showing clearly the reward amount. The very next day I received a call from a taxi driver saying they’d spotted Sebastian but couldn’t catch him because he’d run away and hide.
I immediately went out to see if I could find him. It was really demotivating to be walking the streets yet again, not convinced that I’d been told the truth. I received a call from a woman who told me her brother had crossed paths with Sebastian on his way home from work. I met up with this man along with two others who’d been trying to help me during the course of the morning. We all went to the township and, much to my amazement, I found Sebastian. It had been 22 days.
I looked at him, convinced I was seeing things. He looked at me in a way that made me think he also couldn’t believe it was me. He was very thin and he stank. We took him to the vet where he was given a clean bill of health along with deworming and a rabies shot.
The three men who helped me find him are such decent people and I’ll be forever grateful to them, as well as to the many, many people who went above and beyond to reunite me with my dogs – people from all walks of life.
I’ll always look back on this experience and not allow myself to only think of the bad, as there are just too many incredible people who blanketed me in support, for which I’ll be eternally grateful!
Life at home
Sebastian has settled back into his life at home. For the first time, I have to monitor his eating as he eats too much now – perhaps a fear of not getting food again. He’s quieter than he used to be. I think he misses his brother, who was there from the very start of his life with us.
He has moments on the farm when he thinks he’s lost me and makes a strange sound that echoes across the whole farm until he finds me again.
My family and I are so happy to be reunited with him. It still feels like such a miracle.
