After two days of intense searching, a missing dog was finally found and rescued by a migrant worker from a drain in the Whampoa area.
The 5-year-old male chow chow named Kiko was reported missing by his owners on the night of Dec 7. The family has had Kiko since he was a three-month-old puppy. Matthew Teh told The Straits Times that at about 8pm that day, they learned from Kiko’s dog daycare, Woofworks, that he had gone missing.
Although the family was in Vietnam at the time, they decided to fly back to Singapore three days earlier than planned on Dec 8 to look for their beloved dog. On Dec 7, a dashcam video was shared on the Singapore Road Vigilante Facebook group, showing a chow chow wandering unleashed among traffic on the Central Expressway (CTE). It appeared to have been bumped by a car.
Missing posters offering a reward of S$1,000 were shared online and pasted at public places in the area where Kiko was last seen. Through a Telegram chat group named “Search for Kiko”, many members of the public went out individually to look for the dog. By the morning of Dec 9, when the group had around 800 members, Matthew sent a new poster with a higher reward of S$5,000.
At 3:17pm on Dec 9, a member of the Teh family wrote in the group chat, “WE FOUND KIKO”. Kiko was spotted walking along a drain at 8 Mar Thoma Road, and a migrant worker had gone in and carried him out. “He carried Kiko out of the drain single-handedly,” the family member told the group. She later affirmed that the man had been helping to put up the missing posters.
The family ran over to retrieve Kiko with fresh durian, which Kiko liked eating. Photos and videos after the rescue showed that Kiko looked well and was walking normally. The family member thanked everyone in the group chat: “It is insane we were able to reach so many people and everyone was so willing to help, we wouldn’t have done it without y’all.”
On Dec 9, Woofworks wrote on Facebook that Kiko had slipped out of the daycare during an event “when an exit wasn’t secured properly by a visiting guest”. The staff chased after him immediately but lost sight of him. Woofworks apologised and said it was “doing everything possible to find him” and reviewing all safety measures.
This really shows the power of community lah! 800 people coming together to search for someone’s lost dog. And big kudos to the migrant worker who went into the drain to rescue Kiko – true hero sia! The family must be so relieved to have their furry friend back safe and sound.
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