A lost dog in Thailand was reunited with his owner using social media four years after he went missing. In 2019, the tale of Leo, a stray dog that has spent the better part of four years of his life waiting at a crossroads in the Thai city of Khon Kaen, went viral online when a Facebook user posted images of the canine and said he had seen the dog sitting in the same place every day as if waiting for someone.
He initially believed the dog had been abandoned, but when he noticed he was well-fed, they inquired about him. It turned out that the dog spent most of his time at the crossroads, but a kind woman frequently brought him food and water. The Facebook user met the dog’s caretaker while taking photos of the dog one day. She came to deliver some food, and he used the chance to ask her some questions. Saowalak, a 45-year-old woman, said she found Leo in the same place years ago when he was skinny and covered in skin diseases.
She was unable to leave him in that condition, so she brought him home and nursed him back to health. Saowalak returned home one day and discovered that Leo was no longer there. She went back to the area where she’d initially seen him, and sure enough, there he was. Presuming he was waiting for his owners, she resisted taking him back. Instead, she would come every few days and bring him food and drink. After finding out that the dog had been living in the same place for years because his owners had left him, the Facebook user took pictures of the dog and the kind woman taking care of him to tell the story.
The photographs of Leo in the post quickly went viral, with hundreds of shares on Facebook. These pictures eventually made their way to Leo’s former owners via social media. Nang Noi Sittisarn, 64, of Thailand’s Roi Et Province, nearly fainted when her daughter showed her a picture of a dog that resembled BonBon, the beloved dog she had lost on a car journey. Their dog BonBon went missing on their return trip after a visit to their daughter on February 16, 2015. Nang Noi reasoned that BonBon must have seen something and leaped out of the moving car while they stopped at a red light, where he had been sitting in the rear seat with the window open. They hadn’t noticed he was missing until they stopped for gas.
After failing to locate BonBon, the woman and her husband doubled back in the direction they had just come from. She told Thai media that they spent a whole week searching for him before giving up hope and assuming he had been killed in an accident. Nevertheless, she finally put two and two together when she saw a picture of Leo on Facebook and realized he was her BonBon. The revelation that he had been patiently waiting for her in the same place for four years was enough to melt her heart.
After seeing the pictures and hearing the story, Nang Noi instructed her daughter to take her to where her pet was waiting. When she arrived, the dog came running to her after she called out his name, “BonBon,” but he was hesitant to go home with her. She realized then that her BonBon had bonded with Saowalak, the lady who had nurtured him back to health and had cared for him ever since. Instead of trying to coerce the dog into coming with her, she decided to leave him with his new master. Despite this, she and her daughter have agreed to pay him regular visits and provide him with whatever he requires.
