This is a two-part story about how I lost my pet dog Scruffy but found him again through social media.

(Read Part One if you haven't already. And be appreciative that there is actually a Part Two, because it's very characteristic of me to not finish what I started!)

This part will follow the story of how Scruffy came to be found and kept safe with his host family. Minute details may not be exact because all of the information was extracted from the conversation I had with Dolly and Auntie Teresa.

THE STORY'S CHARACTERS

Before I talk about how it all started, you'll need to familiarize yourself with the characters in this story.



HOW IT ALL STARTED

On Monday, November 2nd, Neighbour X was taking a walk when he saw a cute dog sniffing about the bushes and wandering around. There was no tag, no leash and no collar. Just a furry, clueless dog among the greenery.

He sat down nearby and offered some bread to the dog. Slowly but cautiously, the dog ate the bread, and gradually warmed up to the stranger.

After 30 minutes of observation, the dog didn't budge from his playground, and nobody came to claim him, so Neighbour X concluded that it was a stray or lost dog.

He brought it back home with him.

A NEW EXPERIENCE

Now, Neighbour X has not had a pet dog before.

He soon realised that it was quite a handful to take care of an animal that he did not have experience in handling.

Although the lost dog was tame and of minimal fuss, he thought it would be better to hand it over to someone who would be a better candidate to take care of it.

AUNTIE TERESA THE SAVIOUR

Auntie Teresa was skeptical when Neighbour X first approached her with the new responsibility. She wasn't sure if her dog Jewel would get along well with it, or if she was even capable of taking care of two dogs.

But upon hearing Neighbour X's intentions to give the dog away to some workers' dormitory, she decided to give the lost dog a place in her home.

DOLLY SHOWS OFF HER NEW PET

The family soon realised that both dogs got along really well. The new dog was also settling in comfortably and did not shiver like the first day that he did.

Dolly invited her best friend, Sweetie over to play with her new dog.

Sweetie asked, "What are you going to name him?"

But Dolly wasn't sure. Somehow she knew that the dog wouldn't stay long with her, and she wasn't ready to grow attached to it and then suffer a heartache later.

So she left it nameless.

SWEETIE RETURNS HOME

That very night, Sweetie returned home and decided to surf some blogs.

Dolly claimed that Sweetie is not a regular reader of Xiaxue. But that night, Sweetie logged on to view Xiaxue's blog.

At that very moment, she saw the retweet on Xiaxue's live twitter feed (which honestly gets updated and pushed down really fast because of Xiaxue's constant flood of tweets).



She decided to click on the link and staring back at her was a dog that looked like the dog she was playing with just moments ago!


SWEETIE CALLS DOLLY

Sweetie called Dolly at once to inform her that she might have found the lost dog's owner.

Together, they traced back the tweets and found my blog.

DOLLY CONTACTS ME

Dolly sent me two emails, and added me on Facebook with the message that she might have found Scruffy.

But her efforts were fruitless simply because I was by my mobile all the time, expecting people to call via the posters we put up.

I was out most of the time putting up posters and talking to people. I was NOT expecting someone to email me and checking Facebook was the least of my concerns at that time.

Finally, Dolly had to send me public message through my chat box - and even then it took me half a day to spot it because my blog was the last place I'd look for clues of Scruffy's disappearance.

I MEET SCRUFFY'S SAVIOURS

So I responded to the message, and I met Auntie Teresa and Dolly, who are about the nicest people I have met.

They truly loved Scruffy and I'm so glad Scruffy was in good hands all the while.

I INFORM THE ANXIOUS TWITTERWORLD

By now everyone was anxious to know if I'd found Scruffy.

I let out a tweet that it IS Scruffy and once again I was flooded with congratulatory tweets!



THE MOST AMAZING EXPERIENCE

I have worked in the social media scene for about two years now, but this is by far the most spectacular experience ever.

I want to thank everybody who helped tweeted and create the awareness, and Wendy who picked it up too.

I'm glad I have Scruffy back and my next task now is to get him a collar whether he likes it or not, and formulate a new pee routine :)

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I have an amazing story to tell.

It all started and ended with social media.

HOW IT ALL STARTED

I was away in KL when it all happened. Having found a prepaid plan to fund my Blackberry usage in Malaysia, I left my Singapore number stored away, which meant that nobody could contact me except via email.

Which was fine, I thought, since it was a weekend anyway, and most of my work was settled so why not make the most of my holiday?

Little did I know that Scruffy had gone missing in the morning. My sister let Scruffy out on his usual pee routine.

Scruffy is not paper-trained. We got him when he was about two, so it was too late to give him any proper training. But over the years, we formulated a routine that we thought worked best for his pee and poo business, since he wouldn't do it in the house and he was so fond of dashing out (we live on the ground floor).



WHAT WENT WRONG

My sister was rushing off to be some where and judging by his pee routine, she thought that Mum would be wrapping it up as usual.

But Mum couldn't, because my parents were out of the country!

She only realised so when Mum texted a reminder to "let the dog out" and by the time she got back three hours later, Scruffy was gone.

It was very worrying because Scruffy has snuck out before but he has always dutifully returned home and sit at the front steps, waiting for us to open the door for him.

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOL #1: FACEBOOK

After searching for over 12 hours and not being able to contact me, my sister used the tool which she knew we connected best in: Facebook.

(Because she doesn't tweet and we find it disturbing to read each other's blogs.)



I got it about midnight and when I reached Singapore, I woke her up to ask about Scruffy. By then, he was missing for about 16 hours.

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOL #2: TWITTER

Feeling pretty desperate at this point, I thought it'd be no harm to tweet about it.

So I did.



I didn't expect much out of Twitter. It was more of to let my friends know and hopefully, they would pass it on to friends who live in the East.

But I was WRONG.



My Twitter retweets were overwhelming.

I had about 70 retweets within two hours. The response was so ridiculous, I actually felt guilty for "spamming" Twitter with my lost dog ad.

The interesting thing was that through all my followers, the message actually reached leading Twitterers in Singapore like MrMiyagi, Xiaxue, PatLaw, who further spread the message - thank you, you guys for having a big heart!

DAY TWO: SCRUFFY'S DISAPPEARANCE

Day Two was spent mostly making a police report, calling up SPCA and sorting out Scruffy's microchip number.

As Scruffy was adopted by me, I went back to his previous owner to ask for his dog licence and that's when we both found out for three years, both parties thought that the other party had it. *facepalm

By Day Two, we still didn't have much progress, save for a few weird phone calls.

("Hi, I saw Scruffy running happily with a pedigree dog. I think he's happy right now. Bye!" / "How old is your lost dog? Because my daughter insisted I call up to ask.")

The torrential rain also made matters worse by dampening our spirits and the posters that we put out in the streets.

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOL #3: PLURK

I was depressed at work until Sheylara MSNed me just as I was about to knock off, asking me if I was free to meet up near my place to search for Scruffy, because "Goonfather plurked about it and got a search group going".


And at 7.30pm the Club Morte group gathered, about eight of us, split up into smaller groups and headed off in different directions to search for Scruffy.



We stuck up more posters, approached dog owners and passers-by. Then everybody ate a little supper before heading home.

I was really, really touched.

DAY THREE: SCRUFFY'S DISAPPEARANCE

On Day Three, we were still getting weird calls. ("Can you give me your address so I can come by and search for Scruffy together with you?")

By this day I was missing my dog a whole lot. The empty dog bed and silence when I came home was hitting me hard.



My sister left a Facebook comment and it was the trigger to my dam. I was balling my eyes out in the office when I saw the comment. What if Scruffy doesn't come home at all??

At night I went out to search for Scruffy but it rained pretty badly again so it was minimal, what I could do.

SOCIAL MEDIA TOOL #4: BLOGGING

I decided to post up a blog post about Scruffy, just in case people searched online and hopefully, they'd get directed to my blog.

After I published my post, I saw a message left on my blog! It was a really short message the day before, asking me to call a particular number.


I called at noon, but there was no answer. Tried again many times until at about 8pm, a lady picked up and spoke to me!

She described Scruffy as a "grey and brown dog" that "hops around" when he runs.

I was getting excited by this minute. "Are you sure?!" I asked.

And she went on to say that Scruffy was very greedy, and jumped very high when she gave him food.

I was 90% sure it was Scruffy. I grabbed her address and scheduled to meet her in an hour's time, when she would be home.



I tweeted about it to update everybody, and many replied with well-wishes. I even got anxious calls asking if I've met up with the lady yet!

FINDING SCRUFFY
When I reached her home, I saw two dogs greeting me at the door.

And one of the dogs, was my beloved Scruffy!

The lady, whom I later knew as Auntie Teresa, let him out and he started sniffing and licking me all over.

We spoke about how she came to contact me, and it was actually via her daughter Dolly.

It's all one big story, saved for Part Two, but for now you guys should know that Dolly found me through Twitter!

Social media sure rocks!

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***

Scruffy, please come home soon.

I am too sad to continue writing anything more but people please pass on the message ok?

Thank you all so much.

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I don't know how event planners do it.

They build an event from the scraps into a wonderful piece of art, and when it ends, they move on to the next job.

When the Blog Awards ended, I felt a huge part of me cut out.

It was beautiful.
But it was also sad.

As I browse through the memories of red carpet night, there's the sickening realization that all's that kept alive of the night is the official Flickr page.

People will move on to the next bigger things, and the glitter will all fade into the background; but at least, it's a happy ending.



People have come up to me, congratulating me on the success of the Awards.

Is it really my success?

It certainly was not.

The HONEST truth is, as cliche as it might sound, I couldn't have done it with my wonderful team.

Boss Ming was being generous when he thanked me publicly for making the event possible. If it were not for his hand, I would not have walked out of the maze that at one point, I was comfortable being trapped in.



My girls, who have volunteered their support ever so readily, nagging at me to catch up on my sleep.

They had no idea that me pulling all-nighters was not solely attributed to the tight timeline of planning the event, but more of me being an overprotective and possessive worker.

I was afraid that if I just finished up my work and leave for home, I would one day lose my sense of belonging and the Blog Awards would have just been "a great event", once upon a time.

That being said, I am constantly in awe how we find the right fits for everybody. We may have flaws, but we all certainly have areas that we shine in, and it's amazing watching the pieces coming together, where everyone's so specialized and perform their roles to the best they could possibly have.



To my Programme ICs Elaine and Robb, you guys were more than my aides. You were my heart - keeping the blood pumping and everything in working order.

I couldn't have asked for better. I really couldn't have.

I have been putting off my thank-you speech to the team, as should come with the end of all events.

Because it's hard saying good-bye.

But it's a process we have to go through, and I'm glad we all endured this together.

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Sorry I totally missed Week 4 because we were too busy planning and executing stuff for the Blog Awards!

Here's a picture of our shoe rack.

It sits outside the office, and everyone has to take off their footwear before stepping into the office.

That's because we have a really homely office and we intend to keep it that way!

I love it on Wednesdays when the shoe rack is full, and the shoes start spilling onto the floor. It means our team is back into the office and kinda shows how much Nuffnang has grown - yes, just by looking at the shoe rack.

One day, we'll have a shoe rack as tall as a cabinet.

And Boss Ming's shoes will remain where only his shoes are allowed to be - right at the doorstep.

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I don't really remember what it really feels like to enjoy partying anymore :(

All I can think of most of the time now is how tired I am at 2am, or how one minute more is akin to added risk of bad skin.

Here's us a post party for the F1 race at Amber Lounge.



There was free flow alcohol all night. Liza and I lunged for the whiskey but we found that the "proper" way to tackle such events as ladies was to order champagne and hold the glasses half-full by their stems.

By 1am we were all bored and falling asleep. We entertained ourselves by pointing out the cuties (but we were really spoilt for choice - it was the first time I'd seen so many good-looking people at one place) then when we were done with that, moved on to drunks who were embarrassing themselves.

Sometimes I feel ashamed that I rather stay at home/hang out with friends than go to pretentious parties like this.

Thank goodness for the company!

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This week's been a really crazy week, with the Blog Awards round the corner.

I can't believe it's all happening so fast - we need more TIME!

The planning is all taking shape now but the execution can really be a bitch. So many deadlines to meet, constant improvisations and flooded email inboxes.

This week, I threw Elaine the task of coming up with the VIP and Guest list for the Awards.

If not for these clients and important people, Nuffnang would not be where we are right now.



I threw my boxes of namecards her way, and Ming dug out his cartons of namecards.

She ended up with a whole pile of namecards strewn all over the desk.

And I was hiding a smile - that really, we've come a long way.

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I've been having late nights and alcohol throughout the weekend.

Come Sunday, I decided to give my body a rest and just.. stay at home.

So I woke up this morning, sat up in my bed. I saw bleakness staring back at me.

It was terrifying. I was going to slack my whole Sunday at home while the world was out watching cars racing and crashing.

In less than five minutes, I was BBM-ing Val, trying to get her psyched up about swimming.

And she said YES!

But what would swimming and tanning be without some snacks right?


I actually was craving the Seafood flavour, and walked three places just to buy one can, but the neighbourhood convenience store, Cheers and 7-eleven all didn't have stock.

I had to make do with the classic flavours. I decided to make up for it by dressing in green.

Actually, it was all coincidental! (Except the slippers. I slipped them on to add on to the green.)

I actually had my green tank on already. Dumped my towel and tanning oil into my light green Espirit tote, and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. That was when I looked into the mirror and realised I was all green!

See, now my Pringles Sour Cream fits so well into the picture.

HOW TO MAKE TANNING MORE "KRRUNCH" WITH PRINGLES

1. Lay out your Pringles chips
And see how long you take to gobble them up!


Time taken: approximately four seconds

2. Balance a Pringles can on your tummy

It was extremely hard work ok!



The wind was blowing so hard the can kept toppling over.

FINE.

My fats were wobbling so hard the can kept toppling over.

There, I said the truth.

How do YOU Krrunch with Pringles?

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OK to motivate myself to blog more, I'm going to start on Project 52 (sorry can't do Project 365 that will totally kill me).

So it's just going to be random photos that I take with my Ricoh or Blackberry.



Wednesdays are our no-meetings day. Everybody comes back to the office, sits down and follows up with clients.

And since most of us are out for meetings on regular days, we like to take the chance to dress down.

Oooh I just love Wednesdays! Hate pencil skirts, button-up shirts and blouses.

My outfit:
1.Black military vest, Far East plaza
2. Oriental tube, thrifted from flea
3. White shorts, Ripcurl
4. Black flats, Mondo
5. Bag, Calvin Klein
6. Watch, Casio

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I think for the first time in my life, I'm embracing singlehood.

It's not that I'm infatuated with this whole idea. It's just that I've learnt to deal with it like a normal person should.

And surprisingly, I can be pretty contented and happy! Maybe a little too anxious to move on, but I think I'm in a better position than I was two years ago.

The key to this is really... FRIENDS!

I can't stress how important friendship is. I don't know if I should be ashamed or proud I've rediscovered so many relationships. Plus newly-forged ones too.

Every evening I'm with a special friend, new or old. And we're chilling and laughing about silly things.

Like I said, I'm still a little anxious, but this time round, I wouldn't mind slowing down just a little.

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I don't know if it was the coffee.

That kept me in a semi-conscious state during sleep. My ears pricked to every car turning into the carpark. I was aware of my mum leaving the house for her 6am flight.

Or is it fear that keeps my heart hammering in my chest - that background fear that I can't quite put a finger to.

I remember this feeling all too well - when I knew all was lost but I had to move on with my life. But I had to feel the way I felt because I couldn't control my emotions.

I would like to think that it was the caffeine.

Sure, I can control myself perfectly fine.

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OK I just got my bill and the absolute shock of my life.

Now I'm very perturbed because I've never chalked up so much in phone bills before and it's worse because the company's paying for it.

I think I'll absorb some of the cost because it's just too ridiculous.. I must have been going trigger happy when Ming told me to go ahead and turn on data roaming when we were in KL.

Anyhoo.

I'm just very sad and affected. (I know, it's just a phone bill!!)

Sigh. I need some retail therapy............

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^ Snail scooped off the beach in Perhentian



Today somebody told me this:

It reminded me of something I read a while back, one of the theories stemming from Symbolic Interactionism, by Goffman.

(Read on if you have a specific interest in Sociology, or do not have any other method of killing boredom.)

Goffman described the interaction of society at a micro-level, or more importantly - people, and how they behaved.

He likened human beings to actors, and Life as a theatre.

We act differently to different people, to invoke a certain perception we want them to have of us.

So for our whole life, we're just acting. Making people believe what we want them to believe.

And it's scary because everybody's doing it. It's a way of life.

(You can stop worrying because that's all about Sociology for today.)

Which brings me to this question: Would you rather be a snail, or a hermit crab?

A snail - Stuck in its own shell. Boring. But comfortable and stable.

A hermit crab - Able to change shells as and when you like. Unpredictable because you might get crappy looking shells. But exciting because you never know when you might find a beautiful shell to live in.

I don't know how to answer my own question.

But I thought long and hard about it, and I think: I WANT to be a snail, but what I truly am - a hermit crab.

And a pathetic hermit crab who keeps finding the lousy shells at that.

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I don't know how many times I've said this, but I'm gonna say it once more.

I love the smell of onions.

They make me feel like everything is a fresh, new experience.

The air feels crisp, novel and exciting.

That's all I have to say. Sorry. When there's blogging on the go, you're going to get more posts like this.

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Last night on the bus back from KL I was watching "Sex and the City".

It wasn't like I had a specific interest in it, I just recalled the whole fuss about the show back then and figured that I had to discover for myself what the fuss was about.

I thought of it OK, except this scene which caught my attention: where Carrie's reading a story to Lily and she ends off with "..and they all lived happily ever after" Only to add, "But you know that's just a fairy tale, right? Things don't always work out like that in real life."

I think fairy tales are important because they teach (the bulk of) us the rules of society: that men are supposed to meet women, and they're then expected to live together for the rest of their lives.

But I think its the reason why most of us girls are broken-hearted or jaded.

We have these expectations moulded unknowingly in our young little girly minds. And when we find that love was not quite what the books taught us, we start crashing our way down from heaven.

I don't know, but shouldn't we be fed with real-life stories from young? Experiences of people with BOTH good and bad endings.

I like reading fiction to be immersed in all sorts of possibilities and imaginations.

But I also like non-fiction to jolt me back to the realities of life.

And no, I'm not jaded. I'm just being practical.

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My birthday crept up on me this year.

So stealthily that I'm afraid that my years will slip by without me noticing.

Lil sister phoned me asking me to be back at 11pm, because she "bought something secret".

It was a cake, then we debated over the number of candles allowed on the cake. She won, of course, with the winning argument: "What's the point of having a cake with candles if people don't know your real age? Might as well not put."

I had my presents given to me wrapped in the cheapo manner my sis is infamous for - torn magazine pages!

Mum got pretty ticked off when she realized that lil sis conveniently forgot to mention her part in the presents.

We gathered around as a family and mumbled birthday song lyrics while lil sis clapped away.

Hmmmm. I think it's a birthday I'd come to remember.

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So I've just gotten back from the sunny beaches of Perhentian.

I loved it all: The sand. Peeking at the hermit crabs. Waiting for moon rise. Dancing while the waves watched.

There was so much time for me to just do nothing. It was such a drastic change from what I had back in Singapore; it was refreshing, so good.

Because of that I had space for thoughts to seep in. I was surrounded by internal chatter all day. Adjectives to describe the warm rays. Phrases to illustrate my inspirations.

So I've decided that my blog posts for Perhentian shall not follow the usual storyline approach, but snippets of events that triggered a chain of reflections within me.

***



If there's one thing I've learnt from this trip, it's that there are many observations I can make about myself just by packing up and going some place far away (Ok fine. Perhentian's not THAT far!) with my friends.

1) I don't like to make plans
Being able to decide activities on the spot is what pumps up the excitement factor for me. For this trip, we didn't know much about the other islands on Perhentian so we took a vote and the winner Long Beach was our Best. Decision. Ever.

On the contrary, if we had picked a poor option, I reckon that it would have been funny to look back upon.

2) I am the early bird that you'll love
I'm the one who goes around waking people up after I'm done with my shower. I actually find no joy in doing that, but I just can't stand wasting precious time waiting for someone to make the first waking move!

3) I'm an internet addict
I'm ashamed to admit that I couldn't stay away for the whole of three days. I guess the only saving grace was that I limited my usage to 30 minutes for two days.

4) I'm oblivious
I think when I'm alone, I'm generally lost in my own thoughts. I'd survey the scenery as a whole, and leave out the intricate details.

When I was done with one of my walks, I found the group squatting by some stones and shells. I then realised that the shells that I thought were sendiments turned out to be hermit crabs.

I found such delight watching them squirm in their shells. It also made me a little sad, to know that I probably left behind a whole lot more of nature when it presented itself to me.

5) I need things fast. Now.
Because a list doesn't look right with just 4 bullet points..

As I left Perhentian, I was secretly relieved that I could return to my normal pace of walking.

I don't think I can spend the rest of my life strolling, and waiting 1 hour for food to come.

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I kinda promised myself that I would swear off all electronic devices during my long weekend here in Perhentian.

But I guess with this post, I've failed.

Its been a really long day. The highlights:
- I saw a turtle peek out from the surface of the ocean.
- I did my first snorkel!
- And abandoned my life jacket after 2 dips
- REALLY yummy mango milkshake

It's almost midnight now, I'm sitting by the beach, thinking.

Sometimes I hate that serenity can bring me so much clarity, but yet allow thoughts to creep in one after another.

Ok! End of emo. Looking forward to yummy eye candy tomorrow!

Let's pray that there even are, haha.

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8pm. Girls in front of the full-length mirror, some on the swiveling chairs.

We'd hang around at the pantry, gossiping in hushed tones. I don't know why we do that either, since the office will eventually get to know. I think that's just a requirement of gossip - you have to whisper, or else it'd be less of a gossip.

Or sometimes go next door where the boys are, to fiddle with their ornaments.

I don't know. I think Bumblebee likes wrestling with Megatron. He should do it more often.

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Met up for a short while with Val and Mich tonight at the new ION Orchard. I didn't see much of the place; just fumbled my way through to get to the train station.

Also took the opportunity to test out the camera that Tetanus has so kindly lent me to test. I love the sharpness and colour!

One creepy thing though - not sure if it's because of my noob camera skills - I can't seem to take self shots! The pictures turn out so blurry.

And if I can't take self shots, what's the point of a camera, right?? HAHA.

Or maybe the camera just hates me.

P/S: I think Val and I hang out so much that we have some telepathy going on. What are the chances that we wear the same shade of green out on the same day, AND yellow PJs the day before?

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