Coke was living next to the house that volunteer Amandine had rented. One evening Amandine saw that the dogs there were mating and the owner hit them with sticks and stones to separate them!

Amandine run out and told them to stop (the people) and then took the 3 dogs for sterilization the next day. She brought them back to their owner afterwards. As Amandine checked the wounds some days later, she noted that Coke had managed to take off her collar and tried to open her wound which had led to an infection. That’s why, on her last night in CNX, Amandine (already running late for her bus to BKK) and Sarah brought Coke to the quarantine enclosure at the shelter as she had also been in contact with distemper puppies.

That same night, Coke managed to climb the fence and make a bid for freedom.

She had later been seen in the village, but then disappeared. We had put up reward signs and searched for her, but without success.

To our big relieve Coke is back! After running away almost a week ago, the dogs at the shelter and our house, detected her outside the back side of the shelter. At first we didn’t know why there was so much barking, but later Klaus saw by chance that Coke was standing near the creek on the other side.
To get her was a bit of an adventure, wasn’t aware that there was so much “jungle” behind our house, we almost needed a machete to get through, and had to wade through the creek…. Got a bit startled when I tried to hold myself to a piece of wood, and then realized that it was a snake… skin (luckily). In the meantime Coke had jumped to the other side of the creek, standing there shivering, but could then easily be picked up.

After a thorough bath back home she enjoyed a nice plate of dog food.

We worried especially as she had an infected sterilization wound. But mother nature had done well and the wound had even improved when we found her again, but she must have lost some weight. Isn’t it amazing that she found back to the shelter though she had been here only at night and just very briefly? Somehow the girl must have come to the conclusion that the place and the folks can’t be too bad, after all…

The only set back was that the owner weren’t so enthusiastic as we were about the return of Coke. They already hadn’t shown much concern when they heard that she had run away, and expressed equally not much relief or joy either, when they heard the news of her return. Poor girl, she is an extremely affectionate and lovable dog - maybe we should even consider keeping her and finding a home for her where she is more loved and cared for?

Coke is now at the shelter for full recovery and didn’t make any further escape attempt!