Home at last!

Boeta the Yorkshire terrier was ecstatic to be reunited with his owners on 15 June after two months of flying solo.

“Two months ago this tiny Yorkie – weighing less than two kilogram – wandered into Willem van Tonder’s work-yard on Beyers Naudé Drive,” Sharon Gluckman recounted last week.

“The dog was completely matted, covered by grass and burrs.”

Van Tonder took the then anonymous terrier to the vet – and the dog was unfortunately not micro-chipped. It was missing some of its teeth and the vet estimated that it was around eight years old.

Van Tonder attempted to find the dog’s owner and contacted Avril Culverwell from Yorkie Rescue Johannesburg. The dog stayed with him for two months, but his own dogs became aggressive with the tiny intruder.

Gluckman took over as his foster parent and continued searching for his owners. “I put his picture on Facebook, and had a myriad of callers all saying they would adopt him, or that he was theirs. And then on Sunday I got a legitimate call – Huibreth Beukes even had a photograph of her missing boy called Boeta.”

Gluckman met the Beukes family at the local veterinarian in Melville. “For the first time he responded to a name. Boeta was ecstatic to see his family – never knew the little guy could jump that high.”

“We’re thrilled that we found Boeta at last,” Huilbreth Beukes said on 25 June.

“He’s so happy to be home.”

The dog was micro-chipped immediately.

“We had a wonderful end to a two-month saga that could have all been avoided with a simple R340 rand microchip,” Gluckman said.

Avril Culverwell from Yorkie Rescue Johannesburg advised animal owners to be proactive. “Please everyone, if you love your animal microchip them – you never know what might happen!”