Germans' lost Labrador found after 3 months

Chennai: “I received a call from a man at around 8.30 pm on Saturday who said he had finally found Luke, the Labrador mix dog of German couple that almost all the pet lovers and NGOs in Chennai had been searching for over the last three months”, said Vijaya Narayanan, a dog lover herself.

 It was in July this year that the German couple, Steffan Kaggrah and his wife Janin have been crisscrossing Chennai distributing leaflets, fuelling WhatsApp campaigns, meeting media persons, visiting numerous veterinary hospitals and pet shops to trace Luke, their dog stolen from Marina beach.  

“Three weeks after the dog was lost, I tried putting myself in their shoes and it seemed horrifying to lose a companion in an unknown land of strangers. I immediately contacted them on Facebook and suggested ideas to help them.

From then on, I along with the couple set out each morning to visit pet shops, clinics and breeding points - name a place and we were there”, recalled Vijaya.

While the couple had to leave to Sri Lanka to renew the visa for their camper van, Vijaya was actively involved with the volunteers and organisations to trace Luke. On the other hand, Steffen's van broke down 400 km before Hyderabad when they were on their way to Sri Lanka and the couple was stranded till they received spare parts from Germany.

Vijaya said she received several calls daily, even at 2 am in the night. On Sunday, finally a man claimed to have seen Luke with an adolescent boy on Oct 18 in Marina and he convinced the boy to give the dog to him.“They said that they did not have my phone number to call - the reason they took three days to reach out to me. While I was 90 per cent convinced that it was Luke and the sight of it, I had to wait for the microchip number to match before I dialled Steffen and Janin who went to Nepal though it was not a part of their plan so that they could be in close proximity to India,”she said.

The pet is currently with Vijaya and the couple would reach India by Monday. Steffen Kagerah, who could only be contacted through text, messaged, “A happiness I am unable to describe as the combined efforts of everybody paid off in the end. We are thankful to everybody in Chennai who searched for Luke and we are very eager to see him.”