84 dog nights
BLAIRGOWRIE – It took three long months to find Marchus the Rhodesian Ridgeback and it took the help of social media to bring him back home.
As sad it is to grasp, pets do go missing. To many families, a pet is an extension of their family unit and an integral part of their home. When Marchus, the Rhodesian Ridgeback went missing on 1 January the Van Eeden family home felt incomplete.
Marchus’s owner, Cathleen van Eeden said that while she and her family were on holiday during the festive season they asked a friend to house sit for them. On the day he went missing, the main gate was mistakenly left open and as the fireworks went off a frightened Marchus ran away. Van Eeden went on to explain that she then received the sad call that one of their two dogs had gone missing. “We have two Ridgebacks in our family, so when the feeder called he confusingly told us that Jock, and not Marchus had run away,” said Van Eeden.
Van Eden did have hope that Marchus would get found as he is chipped. To further ease her and her family’s worries she thought to post a message on Facebook on the ‘I love Blairgowrie’ Facebook page. Two months rolled by and she was left with no other alternative than to assume the worst had happened. Until about three weeks ago when a Facebook post brought with it a glimmer of hope. It read that they had seen a skinny Ridgeback in Delta Park. With the assistance of Katherine Matthews, from Pets, Pet Empowerment in Townships they decided to go to Delta Park and try to spot or find who they hoped would be Marchus.
After that post, more posts flooded in about people spotting Marchus around Delta Park.
Hopes of finding him were reignited and attempts to bring home the 11-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback were heightened.”We bought one of those asbestos kennels for him to sleep in on cold nights and we covered it with reeds and plants so that he would go in but he ended up making a burrow right next to the kennel,” said Van Eeden. Catching him was not an easy task as he was skittish and is also partly deaf.
Marchus, through the help of a very dedicated community, was eventually found on 25 March. “The community was so amazing, their support was just overwhelming and we are extremely grateful for all they helped with,” said Van Eeden.
