I always wanted a pet dog. I hesitated a lot, as I often travel and never stay at home mostly. During Lockdown, I decided to stay within San Francisco, so I decided to adopt a dog from the shelter. I discussed and got assurance from mom and dad to take care of the dog when I travel. So here I adopted a six months old Labrador and named Kiddo.
Being a guy who was always roaming around, Lockdown was a very tough time for me. Staying inside walls was very depressing, and thank god, Kiddo came into my life. He was dawn in the middle of a dark phase. I became so friendly with him. I even decided to take Kiddo with me to roam around the world. He became my best friend.
I am always fond of taking a hike or riding a bike, or doing some exercises during Sunday mornings. Kiddo and I are fitness freaks, and we jog, walk and play together. One thing that makes interesting about Kiddo is being friendly to other dogs. Whenever he gets a friend when we visit parks, he will be busy playing with them. We had a habit of visiting Buena Vista Park to get our weekend exercises and hiking. Kiddo was enjoying it too. We used to try the different coffee places and breakfast places around Buena Vista Park.
We were in the park, like every other weekend, after having coffee at Ritual Coffee Roasters. We had our breakfast packed from the restaurant. We were doing our warm-up exercises and some stretches in the park. Soon, Kiddo got another company, and there was this guy named Farook Jemmiah Saleem who had brought his dog named Reggie for hiking with him. Kiddo was enjoying Reggie’s company. Farook and I became friends for the sake of Kiddo and Reggie. I enjoyed Farook’s company as well. Even though he is a middle-aged man, we had some common interests and cracked jokes like being friends for several years. He is from UAE, he shared about his travel experience, and how he likes living in the USA.
Kiddo and Reggie were ahead of us, not too far, but they stayed within the distance where we could see. They both were playing and turned around often to see if we were following them. I should say Kiddo was enjoying Reggie’s company. We went almost to the peak, and we took a break for a few minutes and sat on a rock to have some water. Farook received a call, and the break was extended. I started taking pictures around and was keeping a watch on both the dogs. Suddenly a stray dog appeared in the park from nowhere. Kiddo got startled and started barking. The stray was approaching to go near Reggie, and Kiddo started chasing it away. I was just afraid of the stray dog attacking Kiddo. The previous day was rainy, and the land was slippery. Reggie headed back to Farook. But, we both were shouting “Kiddo come back, it is ok”. I started running behind him, and even Reggie followed me. The land was slippery; I slipped, fell, got stuck upon a rock, and got hurt on my knee. I was not at all worried about it. I was worried about Kiddo.
Farook beside me was doing some first aid by cleaning my wound and tying it with a handkerchief. I was not sure, did Kiddo slipped like me and ended up somewhere, or did the stray attack Kiddo, or Kiddo lost the path somewhere. He must be hungry, I thought. There were signs about Coyotes. I was worried, what if some Coyote attacked my little dog. I was not able to control my thoughts, and I almost cried. We were waiting for Kiddo at the same spot for more than an hour. I had lost the belief that he will be back.
Farook said, let us go to the Buena Vista Park office and complain about a missing dog. We have been to the park many times. If Kiddo was safe from other animal’s attacks, he must be safely getting back to a spot that we often visit, I thought. But, when I kept thinking about it, there was no specific spot that he would come. We were taking different trails each time. I lost hope and posted on the Facebook group Lost & Missing Dogs San Francisco. Farook was with me the whole time, and Reggie was also upset. Farook asked for any spot that Kiddo knows well there. I was not sure, and I was so upset to think about anything. I thought about waiting near the car for some time. It was taking a little while, so I bid bye to Farook and Reggie. Farook shared his number to know about Kiddo.
Suddenly, I had a thought, what if Kiddo has gone to restaurants around. We use to go to the restaurants nearby often. Soon I took my car and drove around the restaurants nearby. I got a ding sound on my phone. Someone commented that my dog is at the same coffee place we went to during the same morning. I had a restaurant number from Google and dialed. The owner was the one who pinged on the Facebook group.
I went there soon and laughed to the core on seeing the sad face of Kiddo. On seeing my car, he came running and jumped over me, licking all my face. At the same second, I realized that I am breathing, and my knee hurts like a hell. By hugging and kissing Kiddo, I said, Next time, I am so using a chain. The owner said, don’t worry, next time he will come to us, and you can find him here. We all laughed, and I thanked the owner and headed back home.
