I was, of course, hot on his heels, but certain skills take a while to acquire, and often a wave would fold me in half. Legs here, arms there, seaweed in my hair and my swimming trunks leaden with sand.
This past week I felt like that all over again, but the ocean wasn't in sight.
It was deadline week, with the added pressure of presentations and video projects and an important awards ceremony in the Boland - plus a speech at a congress in Johannesburg, with airports and Ubers and whatnot.
When I got off the stage after my talk in Jo'burg, I saw a message on my phone: "Don't stress about Asgat, he's been found!"
For those who don't know: Asgat is my beloved dog who sometimes, when I'm away, stays at the pet hotel up the road run by my former colleague Stefanie.
It's like his second home but two days ago, while I was in Johannesburg, he darted off up a Table Mountain path while Stefanie was walking him and the other dogs in her care. And he disappeared.
I don't know what got into him but, thankfully, he was found: a kind soul noticed him in one of the public parks at the foot of Table Mountain, suspected something was amiss, and with the help of two vegetable hawkers managed to catch him and load him into her car.
As she said afterwards: "He's not a back-seat driver, is he? He went straight for the front seat!"
As you do when you find a lost dog, she took him to the nearest vet to have his microchip scanned, and can you believe it: at that precise moment, a friend of mine walked into the same vet with his own dog, saw Asgat and said to the lady "but this dog looks just like my friend Wicus's dog!".
The story had a happy ending, thank goodness!
What a serendipitous moment. That Xander was at that particular vet at that exact moment…
These were the closing words of my speech at the congress: it is in our power to make the world a better place. And, as I thought later, you don't have to save the entire world either, just make a difference in one person's world!
The kind woman who took Asgat to the vet made my world a better place. Because if after the crazy week I'd had I still had to bid farewell to my beloved pooch too...
May you also experience the grace of serendipity as I did this week.
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Wicus
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