Diplo Dog Goes Missing

 

This is the story, as told to us by our maid when we got home for dinner today. I thought I’d have a heart attack when I heard it! The tension the suspense!  She started with “Diplo Dog got lost for 3 hours today…” EGAD!

When TD and I left the apartment this morning, there was a bit of a confusion and Diplo Dog ended up escaping and running around our floor! After we chased him around (me, TD, maid and roaming guard)  he was finally caught and the maid brought him in and TD and I proceeded to the elevator to get to the lobby.

Now this is when it gets funny/scary. 

The maid goes in, puts Diplo Dog down and starts cleaning the house. This is around 9 am. She gets a call at around 11 am from the lobby guards asking if she lost the dog, and she answers no “he is here sleeping.” Diplo Dog spends most of the day napping (now THAT’s a dogs life!) under the fold-out bed in the guest room. (He loves sleeping in darkness) And only comes out when he is invited to play or to take a walk.

At about 12 noon, our maid calls him for his walk and finally realizes that he is NOT IN THE APARTMENT!! She panics and goes down to the lobby to ask them if they’ve seen our dog. They tell her to check the guard house out front, and by this time she is freaking out and hyperventilating at the thought that the dog might have gotten out of the compound, run over or lost forever!

She goes to the guard house and of course communication was not that clear so she can’t tell if they have seen the dog or not. But all she could understand is they were telling her to sit down and relax because she was practically in tears. (The main reason we brought a maid to Jakarta is to help us with our dog, we would be hard-pressed to find a local maid that would be willing to do so because in the Muslim religion dogs are considered unclean. So can you imagine if she lost him?!?) She rushed down to the basement quarters to check if Diplo Dog was there and lo and behold, Diplo Dog was there sitting where the guards were sleeping and being petted by one of the guards. Our maid was ecstatic!

So what really happened?

Apparently the door was blown open after we left, unbeknownst to our maid. Diplo Dog (who always gets stressed when we leave him because it’s like he’s being left out of “the pack”) tried to follow us downstairs by literally using the stairs. (Thank God he didn’t fall off – the stairs have only 2 metal tubes on the side to protect humans from falling, but tiny dogs can easily fall through!) Someone 2 floors down had called the lobby to tell them there was a dog walking around, and the guards picked him up and called the maid. But since she said the dog wasn’t ours, they kept him at their quarters. And of course… fell in love with him!

Newfound friends

The guards kept telling the maid how nice and well-behaved the dog was. I guess they were really surprised because they are very scared of dogs (not being familiar with dogs and all) but with Diplo Dog, they couldn’t stop petting him and they were delighted at what a good boy he was! A guard even escorted Diplo Dog and our maid up to our unit and said an exteneded good bye to Diplo Dog! (Lots of patting on the head and bye-byes!)

A word of caution from a friend

When we first got here, we met a liberal Muslim lady who had a dog. All she had to do is avoid contact with dog saliva, because that is what is considered unclean. If they touch the saliva they have to wash their hands many with dirt and water. Yes, you read that correctly… DIRT as in soil! But she warned me to take good care of Diplo Dog, because she’s had several dogs. The previous ones died because her neighbors poisoned them by throwing poison into their compound, and the current one she almost lost because the dog escaped, and their guard didn’t even bother telling her that the dog ran off. When they realized it, the dog was long gone, and they couldn’t find him. The dog came back after a while, but he was severely beaten.

The happy ending

I was very sad to hear these things, but grateful to be made aware so that we could take extra care. I’ve thoroughly briefed the maid about this and I guess that’s why she was really panicking. But we are so so happy and relieved that Diplo Dog is back with us safe and sound, with new friends to boot! I’m definitely sending over some dark chocolate banana bread to our apartment guards tomorrow to tell them thank you for taking care of our dog while he was lost!

Trust Diplo Dog to work his charm and make new friends among our guards who are usually afraid of dogs!

NOTE: This is our personal experience and the experience of a person we know, as she recounted it to us. I am in no way saying that this is the norm here in Jakarta. I am not familiar enough with the culture to make any generalizations whatsoever.