KNYSNA NEWS - Many residents of Knysna have lost something important to them during the recent disaster that ravaged the area, be it property, a car, clothing – or a beloved pet.
In many cases, these pets were like children to them, making their loss equivalent to losing a family member.
But what if, after three weeks of fruitless searching, your little furry family member came back? All on its own. Almost unscathed.
That is exactly the bittersweet moment that Rina Carstens experienced recently when one of her three tiny dogs who lost her way in the inferno found her way home to Windheuwel, near Concordia.
What makes the scruffy little one-year-old Stompie’s tale even more special, is the fact that she was born with a stump for a right front leg, but this disability does not seem to slow her down and didn’t stop her one bit from finding her way home to Carstens.
“It feels fantastic to have her back. We couldn’t believe that, with her disability, Stompie made it back home on her own with only a few minor burns to her paws and body, which KAWS sorted out for her. Now we just hope Noenie and Vlooi will return too. We won’t stop looking,” said Carstens.
Noenie, who looks just like Stompie but is black in colour, Carstens said, has been with her and husband Jacobus for nine years. She was Stompie and Vlooi’s mother.
“Vlooi, the little male, was like my shadow. He followed me everywhere. These dogs are really like our children and are so precious to us. They even get cooked meals and pudding at home,” she said.
Carstens shared the tale of the day she lost her three animal children: “A few days after the fires broke out, it started coming ever closer to our home. Eventually we evacuated to my daughter Reinette’s takeaway shop in Noble Street, which is about 8km from our home.
“We grabbed what we thought was necessary and loaded it into the bakkie. The three dogs were in the cabin, but I think the back little window might have been open, and with all the commotion they must have jumped out. The flames were already all around us and we didn’t know what to take or what to leave. When I saw they were all gone I expected the worst,” she recalled.
Carstens said she and Jacobus searched the 8km stretch of road between their home and her daughter’s shop every day.
Then, on one Saturday morning about three weeks after the three dogs disappeared, she and her husband were woken up by what sounded like a dog whining outside their gate.
“I told my husband to go look at what it was, as sometimes when I hear barking in the neighbourhood I hope it is one of my dogs and call for them. He went out and first asked, ‘What sheepskin is this lying in front of our gate?’
“He picked up the bundle and couldn’t believe his eyes. ‘Goodness gracious, it’s Stompie!’ he said.
Reminiscent of the star of the movie Lassie Come Home, this three-legged pooch called Stompie found her way back to the arms of her anxious human "parents" after disappearing for three weeks during the June 7 fires. Here you can see where Stompie gets her name from – her right front paw is a little stump.
“It was wonderful finding her,” exclaimed Carstens.
“I am still very heartbroken and confused in a way. I just want to know where the other two are, or what happened to them. If I knew where they are or what happened to them, it would be some sort of comfort,” said Carstens.
For now though, they will keep searching and hoping that one of these days Noenie and Vlooi might also return as their three-legged Stompie did.
ARTICLE & PHOTOS: STEFAN GOOSEN, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD JOURNALIST
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