A Chennai family was reunited with their pet golden retriever, nearly a month after she went missing, owing to the efforts of a team of animal welfare activists from the city and Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan.

Deepu Jain had left eight-month-old Ruby at a dog boarding facility in February as she had to go out of town for a few days. On February 13, she got to know that her dog had escaped from the facility due to negligence of the staff and went missing.

It was then that she saw a tweet shared by Mr. Thiaga Rajan of a photo of his dog. “I immediately tweeted to him, sharing the details of Ruby and explained that she was missing. I knew he was a dog lover and I was desperate for help,” she said.

The Minister soon reached out to city-based animal welfare activist Shruti Vinodh Raj, who is also a Hospital Committee Member at TANUVAS, to help coordinate search efforts. She, along with animal welfare activist Antony Rubin and Saravanan Arasan, began to look for Ruby.

“The Tambaram Commissioner of Police M. Ravi helped us obtain CCTV footage from near the Navalur toll gate, which indicated that Ruby had been taken somewhere in that area,” said Mr. Antony.

Ms Shruti said the clear footage established it was a food delivery person who had Ruby, following which they obtained the numbers of nearly 400 delivery men working in the area and began calling them.

“We also shared information about Ruby to a TV channel and an online news portal. Following this, one of the delivery men, our volunteers had initially spoken to, got in touch with us, and said he had indeed taken the dog. He handed Ruby over to a friend in Mayiladuthurai,” she said. Ms. Deepu and her husband immediately went there on Saturday and brought back Ruby.

“A Minister’s focus must be on Policy & Execution. But humanity comes first,” said Mr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan in his tweet, thanking Ms. Shruti, Mr. Antony, Mr. Saravanan, and Tambaram COP Mr. Ravi for their efforts. A video shared by the Minister on his twitter page on Saturday night, of Ruby happily meeting her family, has been widely shared.

In the video, Ms. Deepu’s son can be seen crying upon being reunited with Ruby. “The minute Ruby saw us, she recognised us and was extremely happy to be back home. We are thankful to everyone who came together and helped find her,” she added.

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