SEREMBAN: A pet dog that had gone missing for eight months was finally reunited with its owner here thanks to a viral TikTok video.
A TikTok user — @jimjimmie — captured the video of the dog sitting in the rain in Jalan Nusari Aman 3/1, Siliau last December.
The dog at first refused to move even when "Jim" prepared some food for it.
"Come here, dog... come eat. Even if you don't want to eat, please stand in the shade here," Jim said in the video.
It finally went to the food, but wore what could only be described as a forlorn expression.
The video garnered over 60,000 likes.
The dog's owner, Vaani, discovered the video and swiftly contacted Jim.
Vaani and her family were in tears when they finally reunited with their beloved dog.
"I went there and called her name... we were all crying and hugging (our dog)," said Vaani, a 40-year-old mother.
The dog — Bairava — was adopted five years ago by the family when it was a puppy.
They had initially planned to 'free' the animal once it had reached adulthood.
But after six months, it still showed no sign of being able to care for itself.
"It still didn't know anything. If it fell into a drain, it wouldn't know how to get back up," Vaani said.
The family eventually chose to keep the dog.
In April last year, Vaani fell ill and went to Melaka to recuperate.
She was worried that there was no one to take care of the dog in her absence.
"My husband told me he would take care of Bairava by putting her at the back of his company. So I went home (to Melaka) for a month."
It was during this time that Bairava vanished.
Vaani's husband had to spend a day in Penang for work and asked a friend to feed Bairava.
Unfortunately, the friend forgot to close the gate.
When Vaani's husband returned, the dog was already gone.
The family thought it was killed in a road accident or taken away by someone, i.e. until they stumbled upon the TikTok video.
They drove to Sendayan, 4km away from where the dog was lost, to reconnect with it.
