KOLKATA: Four-year-old
Rockey ventured out of her
Shradhananda Park home last Saturday and lost her way in the storm that hit the city in the evening. Found wandering aimlessly on Baithakkhana Road,
Amherst Street police rescued Rockey and put her in custody of the Compassionate Crusader Trust (CCT) till she could be handed over to her family the next day.
Rockey is a German Shepherd owned by Sonali Sen. On Saturday, when Sen and her daughter had gone to a temple around 5pm, the dog found the door ajar and slipped out.
“While in the temple I was informed that Rockey was missing from home. I rushed back and started to look for her in the locality,” Sen said..
The family searched the nearby places where the dog is taken for walks and questioned neighbours. The thunderstorm had started by then. Failing to trace her, the Sen family lodged a missing diary with Muchipara police station.
But Rockey had presumably crossed over to the jurisdiction of the neighbouring police station. The storm, rain and the unknown terrain had terrified the dog. A passerby spotted her on the road and informed the Amherst Street police station and a team immediately rescued her.
“It is possible that Rockey was hounded by packs of strays on her way that made her afraid to retrace her steps. Moreover, the rain must have made it difficult for her to smell her way back home,” said CCT founder Debasis Chakrabarti.
In the police station, cops wiped her wet fur and fed her biscuits while officers, including officer-in-charge Kausik Das, started working on tracing her owners. They shared Rockey’s details on Sanjog, an internal app for
Kolkata Police and called in CCT to take care of the dog till she was reunited with her family.
“We kept Rockey in the duty officer’s room till CCT officials arrived because a few mongrels that live on our police station premises were not happy with the German Shepherd entering their territory,” said an officer.
An ambulance from CCT with rescue expert Sidheswar Patra and employee Arup Pal arrived soon after and took her away. Patra fed her milk and roti before she fell asleep.
Amherst Street police learnt about the missing dairy through the app and contacted Sen. Since it was already around 1am, the family was asked to collect the dog against proof the next day.
“We knew that the police would definitely trace her. But despite getting the news that Rockey had been found and was in safe custody, we could not sleep the whole night.” Sen told TOI.
On Sunday morning, Sen and her daughter Yashi, along with cops, collected Rockey from the CCT.
The dog barked and jumped around the 10-year-old girl, who showed the officials photographs of the dog on her phone. The cops handed Rockey over without asking any question.
Back home, Rockey is now busy playing guardian to Sweetu, a labrador, and Elu, a beagle.
Rockey is a German Shepherd owned by Sonali Sen.