It was a close shave for SonnyBill, a beloved Yorkshire terrier who went missing from his Port Elizabeth home for eight days before he turned up in another suburb, disguised with a short haircut and a new name.
Adding to the tiny 2kg canine’s ordeal was that a Port Elizabeth mother – later arrested for “dognapping” – had allegedly attempted numerous ploys to ensure she could hold on to the dog.
This included changing his appearance by giving him a close shave and renaming him “Gary”.
It has emerged that the suspect’s young child might have given the game away.
The 34-year-old mother, who is not being named to protect the identity of her children, was arrested and released on R500 bail for allegedly stealing seven-year-old Sonny-Bill.
Sonny-Bill went missing from a house in Luneville Road in Lorraine on June 25 and it was eight days before his owners and police managed to track him down to a house in Salisbury Park.
When they found him he had been shaved and renamed Gary.
Sonny-Bill’s shocked owners, Stephen and Bridget Ungerer-Davids, took to social media the day after he went missing, posting pictures of the terrier and pleading for assistance in tracking him down.
“We were devastated. “I went looking everywhere for him and went into a panic. He is my baby. I cried for days,” Bridget said.She said she had spent several days and nights searching for Sonny-Bill, driving and walking up and down the area.
Stephen said initially they did not think the dog had been stolen.
“After searching high and low for him we thought he might be dead. Knowing him, that also did not make much sense as he is street smart.
“He is often visiting the neighbours and their dogs. They are all friends.
“All our neighbours love him and he always goes around to visit them and check up on his friends.”
Stephen explained that there was a playschool on their property which shared a driveway with the main house.
“Obviously word got out that he was missing and the principal of the school came to us and said a child at the school was telling them he had a new dog.
“The principal then called the mother of the child to inquire if they had perhaps picked up the dog, but she denied having a dog.”
When she was told that her child had said they had a new dog, she admitted to having one but said they had acquired it a month ago.
Stephen said the woman then sent pictures of “her” dog.
“The pictures were definitely not our dog but I also recognised the photos from another missing dog post a while back,” he said.
“It turned out that, on that Friday, she walked into the school holding the dog but they did not really think anything of it.”
With suspicions raised, Stephen said, they contacted the police to ask what to do.
Walmer police officials Sergeant Elize van der Mescht and Warrant Officer Matt Hancox and Bay traffic official Suzette Ludeke took action.
Police spokeswoman Colonel Priscilla Naidu said they had followed up on the tip-off, which took them to the woman's house in Salisbury Park on Friday August 3.
“A microchip scanner was used to identify the dog and it was confirmed the terrier was the missing dog,” she said.
“Several questions were asked as to how she came into possession of the dog, but each time her version of the story changed.
“No satisfactory reason could be established and she was arrested for being in possession of stolen property.”
Stephen said they had decided to press charges when it materialised that the woman was trying to deceive them.
“One thing is clear, she wanted to keep him and intentionally tried to deceive us. Even when we got him back, his hair was shaved off, like she tried to disguise him so we would not know.”
He added that he would not have laid a charge had he believed she had taken the dog in as a good deed.
Asked about Sonny-Bill’s condition since his return, Stephen said he was visibly traumatised.
“You can see he is not acting himself,” he said.
The woman was detained for three hours at the Walmer police station on Friday last week before being released on R500 bail and ordered to appear in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
The case was postponed to September 27, when she will appear in the same court.