The traffic radio has suddenly started, announcing an object falling on the middle of A3, which was the Autobahn I was driving on back to Bonn from bayreuth. It was a rainy, snowing and salty 1100 Km drive, when I have approached the turn that leads to Altenkirchen, I hesitated if I should go to the shop now or it’s not worth adding another 60 KM to my route? There was something telling me to turn to the restaurant and check on the guys, and another thing telling me that they will close in an hour and it’s not worth it since I am off. This part has convinced me to continue home, take a warm shower and rest.
During my shower, I have got on my Garmin watch notifications of SID calling me several times, which has got me worried, I was wondering with whom SID is fighting today? He would never call me more than once, there must be something going on. But I have taken my time in the warm shower, thinking of how many hours I would sleep tonight as I am in a desperate need for it. When I tried to call SID back, I got a call from Joe, which increased my worrying level. I mistakenly hang up on Joe when Sid was calling me again. I was mentally preparing myself to cool him down, he probably had an argument with one of the employees, and I was about to start first to cool things down, then try to listen to the problem. The moment I picked up, Sid on the other line telling me that Gyda is lost!
That was the moment that woke me up, realizing she would be frozen in the cold. Temperature could reach down to -5 and as per Sid, they were 5 cars looking all around Altenkirchen, and around 10-15 persons are involved. Sharon was crying as she is the closest to Gyda. Everybody is occupied with Gyda and I was still shocked on the phone, not knowing what to do! They have already informed the police and there is nothing much to be done but to continue searching or just wait to hear from the police. It is freezing and the longer Gyda stays outdoor the more chances she would die of the cold. Therefore, I decided to get dressed and join the search. This has added another 140 KM to my route timeline. As I was approaching the B8, I slowed down looking on both sides. It would be impossible that Gyda would reach this far, but I was still looking around in case if I find her or miss a spot that she might be on. During the drive towards Altenkirchen, I was wondering how she would be doing in the cold, what possibly could happen to her? Imagined her cute face when she is scared and looking around, probably looking for one of the familiar faces she is used to, I continued driving until Altenkirchen when I decided to turn right instead of left, where the shop is. Right after my right turn, I spotted a huge flash light looking around, Ive assumed it could be Andy, he is the one always with the gadget and vehicle technology! I continued looking for Gyda, sometimes I shouted her name, it was post-midnight and I am pretty sure people were already sleeping.
Posting on Facebook groups helped a lot more people to interact and be involved, I lost count of the number of shares on Facebook, this is when I started getting touched of how people are in so love with animals here. I even compared if this situation happened to me in Qatar! imagining the same scenario in Qatar would be, calling the police: hello I have lost my dog! First reaction would be everybody would laugh out loud and then they would talk about it for a long time, it would even be the subject of the week, second, posting about it on Twitter, if it would go viral is because of how people handling it and making fun of it. Then I would be another interesting subject to religious people and “Haram” group, finally someone would come up to me and say: it is a culture thing and it is just a dog, let it go! Gyda would be the victim of this kind of thinking, and the “culture” thing that considers the dog as a “no no” thing. This maybe explains why the street dogs of the Arab countries are wild defensive and always in attacking mode! With all my travels, whenever I meet a street dog, first thing I would observe is that they need love, attention and cuddling, I would notice street dogs around restaurants in Hong Kong, India, Argentina, and other countries, they are just friendly, sometimes fed by people and always cuddly, in Arab Countries it is the opposite, a dog is a symbol of “haram” and not accepted, that’s why they are fought against, thrown rocks at, chased and tortured. I wouldn’t wish Gyda to be there for now and my target is to find her ASAP before she freezes.
Coming back to the search scene, I had to drive again towards BMW dealership area when I spotted a huge Dodge Ram with lots of lights on top, he was Matthias searching for Gyda too, this has reduced the worrying level and got it replaced with joy and relief! For some reason I had to drive for the third time to the first street where I took when first arrived to Altenkirchen, this time I took it slower, and at some point, I turned off the engine and walked around with no use, again I drove further until I observed a dark brown dog, limping, headed towards my car but hesitated and headed further, I slowed down to make sure it’s not a fox, and here it was, Gyda! She found me! I shouted her name and parked the on the middle of the road. The amount of excitement I saw on her face was priceless, she was excited in a way she peed the moment she saw me. I hugged her, feeling her frozen partially wet fur, she was so excited that she was jumping on me none stop. And for the first time ever, Gyda loves the car, she got into my MINI with pleasure driving back to the shop.
The moment we arrived, I got Gyda out of the car and by mistake I hit the Alert button on my car key which made Sid runs outside, the expression on his face was simply priceless, he sounded shaky and asked where I found her, when I explained, he got goosebumps and told me to walk in to explain to me why! Gyda was still excited that she peed again when she saw Sid, then he told me what Karo’s father told him, who was a dog whisperer. I have always doubted that such a skill or talent exists, we have even talked about it many times that such a thing doesn’t exist, but sending the exact location where I found Gyda, telling us there is some wood, cars and houses which was exactly accurate, that shocked me and Sid too! This means this whole dog whispering thing actually worked, and we could ask for his help once we lose Gyda or Floki one day!
Gyda taught me a lesson that night, that lesson which I never got or understood, the belonging, home, heart where she would get into when she is missing home. I kept saying I am always in search of a Home, while it is just in front of me, inside of me and surrounding me, home is where love is, where my family, where when I get home from work, I find loving people, home is the land I would fight for. I might fail to describe what home to me but it is there. It is where I love the most located. One day I will talk about the lesson of Gyda to my girls, how an animal taught me to see what I always avoided to see, to sense what I always pretended doesn’t exist. For now, what is itching my heart is that I am just away from my girls, my home is my family, my girls & my parents.
Thank you Gyda!
