This is my personal account of what transpired from Sunday 18th August to Wednesday 21st August. The whole episode has been traumatic to say the least and some of the memories are a bit of a blur.
Main characters:
Carbo Bishnoi - Missing dog
Shravani Bishnoi & Ajinkya Joshi - Missing dog’s humans
Search and Support Team
Lakshmi, Sanjay, Mohini, Sachin, Asawari, Nupur, Sunny, Anvita, Sumedh, Poonam, Niyati, kalindi, Vandana, Piya, Neil aka Doggy, Manas, Chaitanya, Sumit, Surbhi, Charu Kapil.
Day 1 - the news breaks
18th August 2024
1:29 PM
I’m sitting with my friends at Kavi on Nal Stop, playing a fun card game called Wizard. I’m having a terrible game and losing all the rounds. Pathetic. I got a call from Surbhi, owner of a home boarding kennel where Carbo was staying. She frantically said that Carbo had run out of the gate and was nowhere to be seen. She was on the other side of the city and it would take time for her to reach. She asked if I could go there quickly.
I froze. I remember my friends asking what happened and telling me to breathe (a popular advice). I took my keys and made my way to Aundh, where he ran away from. I was only on Nimbu Pani at Kavi and but I could no longer feel any of my senses.
The thing is, Carbo is a very dear dog to me. Not just for all that he has been through but we share a very special bond. We like each other’s company and I feel we get each other on an emotional level. He’s often called fun and stupid, which is something quite applicable for me too. But we’re not stupid. It’s all part of a grand plan. Ever since Shravani and Ajinkya adopted Carbo, I’ve been meeting him at her clinic in Bavdhan. He’s also stayed with me and was supposed to stay with me this time when Shravani and her family were in Kashmir. Every dog lover feels they keep all the dogs with them. And if I could, Carbo would be at the top of the list.
Carbo's adoption appeal photo
2:00 PM
I start walking inside the vasti where Carbo ran into. I’m asking people if they’ve seen a black dog run from here. At least 10 people have now said that they’ve seen him. They all said he had a harness and a leash well but he wouldn’t let anyone hold on to the leash. Now Shravani calls - “Kapil, what’s happening?”. I tried my best to calm things down by saying we’re looking for him and he’s been spotted so he must be nearby. But I doubt anyone can be calm if you’re in Kashmir and you find out that your dog is missing back home in Pune. I couldn’t imagine what she must be going through. At that moment I didn’t have the bandwidth to process it either. I was looking for Carbo and I wanted to find Carbo as soon as possible.
I reached the end of the vasti where a group of guys were chilling. I asked them as well. They said he ran out of the vasti towards Aundh road. I was a bit dejected as I had to walk all the way back to get my bike and find him on Aundh road. One of the vasti guys offered to take me on his bike to look for him. A few people said they saw him running but were unable to hold on to him. We started taking rounds of Aundh road. We passed Raj Bhavan gate and I thought he might have gone in to escape the chasing street dogs but then I saw two dogs sitting just inside the gate. So he couldn’t have gone in and we went ahead. The vasti friend had to go back so our immediate search ended there.
2:30 PM
I went back to my bike and now there was Nupur, Anvita, Niyati and Sunny present too. Everyone is in shock. A quick breather and we started charting out a plan to find Carbo.
We now had a team to look for Carbo. Surbhi is also back at the kennel. I told her to make a poster and take printouts with a ₹10000 reward - an amount which is significant enough for someone to help and return a missing dog.
We split up and started looking in different places around Aundh Road, Pune University, Baner Road, Ganeshkhind Road.
3:45 PM
Nupur and I are looking for him and stop by Raj Bhavan to ask the security guards if they’ve seen Carbo. One of the ladies tells us that a girl and a boy came here just 10 minutes ago asking if this is a lost dog. The girl, wearing a white t-shirt, was holding his leash. She told them to go to the police station right opposite and enquire there. We were so excited. We thought we'd found him!
We go to the police station where we are told that no one has come here with a dog. Disappointed, we wait outside the police station contemplating our next steps.
At the police station a few more people now have joined in. Doggy, Piya, Vandana and many others have now been added to our WhatsApp group ‘Finding Carbo’. Poonam has requested volunteers of her NGO to look for him as well. She also couldn’t find him inside Pune University. Sumedh has been looking inside the vasti again talking to the residents for any information. He hasn’t had any luck in Bhosale Nagar either.
4:30 PM
Now we have plenty of people looking for him. Getting multiple reports of sightings. I saw an identical Carbo on Aundh road! He was without a harness and leash but he looked like his carbon copy. What are the odds!! Some say he ran towards Pune university. Some say he was at the police station. The time stamps of these are also a bit hazy and we’re not exactly sure what the time line was. We’re also not sure where the girl and the boy took Carbo. We needed CCTV footage.
By now posters have been extensively shared across social media.
4:45 PM
We get a call. It is a little girl who says that she saw Carbo and he ran away from her towards Aundh gaon. We try to ask her for time but she is unable to give one. We’re not confused. What has happened? If the girl had him around 3:30 PM why is he in Aundh gaon? Did he escape from her too? Is he running again? It sounded very unlikely but at that moment thinking rationally wasn’t my best suit. At this point we all realise we may get wrong information because there is a reward, which is now bumped up to ₹20000. The little girl also said she saw him get into a rickshaw number 9662. So we went and asked around Spicer college road. Sadly, this lead was false.
5:15 PM
Heavy rain. Heavy heavy rain. We are fully drenched and decide to take a break. I’m not sure where the others are at this point but Anvita, Sunny, Nupur and I are together trying to figure out what to do next. I can’t speak for others but I could sense so many emotions. I just wanted to focus on finding him without dwelling on what I was feeling. But now because of the rain, I couldn’t physically move and search. But because there were four of us together, it helped significantly.
6:51 PM
Shravani shares two voice notes from an animal communicator. Now personally, I’m super sceptical of communicators. So is Shravani. But when you have nothing to go on, nothing to hold on to, any lead seems worth pursuing at this time. The communicator has said that Carbo is in Sindh society, near a well. Very specific information.
The rain has eased a bit by now so we go to Sindh. We inform the guards, patrol the lanes, call his name out in different gardens. We even search extensively near the well. But no luck. There are many plots under construction so we thought maybe he is hiding in one of them. It was quite dark by now and unless he comes running to us, it would be nigh impossible to spot him. The communicator has now told us that Carbo has told her that he will ‘figure out’ the night and he hadn’t heard any familiar sounds. We even tried to see if we can ask anyone to lend us sniffer dogs that we can use to find using his scent but that turned out to be a dead end as well.
9:00PM
Sumedh has now also checked Armament colony, which is besides Raj Bhavan and there is no sign of Carbo. The residents have been informed to keep a lookout. Chaitanya said that there is a possibility that he is hiding now and will come out late at night when it is quiet outside. That made sense.
There was some confusion as well if Carbo had run out with the leash or without the leash but we were quickly able to figure out that he was definitely with the leash. At this point we feel the best case scenario is that the girl outside Raj Bhavan has taken Carbo with her.
An animal communicator said he would be indoors and safe, and that we should try to focus more on spreading the word around.
Day 2 - CCTV
19th August
1:00 AM
I’ve barely slept an hour. At this point, I have to be a bit honest, I had a bit of self doubt. What am I doing? He’s not going to be there at 1:00 am. But in the back of my head I had a lingering guilt. Had I gone to Raj Bhavan before when I thought he was in and informed the security guards then by the time the girl got there, the guard could have shared my number and Carbo would be with me right now. So I didn’t want to leave another stone unturned henceforth.
Mohini is Shravani’s elder sister who is also in Kashmir. Her husband Sachin has just landed in Pune from Indore and we roamed around for a couple of hours to no luck.
7:00 AM
I woke up not sure about anything. A few others had already been searching since early morning but to no luck. We got a call from within Sindh society but that turned out to be a false lead as well. Asawari is driving Shravani’s car around the area hoping to spread the scent that may lead Carbo back to us.
9:00 AM
The word is spread far and wide now. Social media, posters on ground, whatsapp forwards, all of it. Some of us were figuring out if we can get a drone. We even contemplated hiring a rickshaw with a megaphone playing Shravani’s recording of calling Carbo. Initial conversations about radio and newspaper ads started. A lot of people are helping in their own way. A lot of animal communicators have reached out on their own accord and told us possible hints. None of them are coming out to be true, unfortunately. I was having a conversation with one who suggested that Carbo has some life advice for me - that I am doing too many things in life and I should focus on 2 things that make me money. At that moment, I didn’t care for life advice from Carbo. Just tell me your location, you not so stupid dog!! But no location was given, unfortunately.
10:00 AM
I stopped by Raj Bhavan again to talk to the security. She was with her baby. I asked her again if she could narrate what she saw yesterday. This time, she shared a few more details.
- Carbo was relatively comfortable
- Carbo even pooped outside
But she is still unsure where she went afterwards. She suggested going to the police station to look at CCTV footage.
For the most part, everyone at Chaturshringi Police station was extremely helpful. There were a few tense moments not related to Carbo going on at the station so at times the responses were a bit flared but they did their best to give us all that we asked for. Sunny was our CCTV hero at the police station following up with multiple people to get us access.
11:00 AM
More posters were printed, more societies were visited. The agenda for the day was to get as much as CCTV possible and cover as many on ground societies as we can.
1:00 PM
Sunny now has access to CCTV and he is looking through the whole footage trying to spot the girl, the boy and Carbo. Nupur and I are at Bal Kalyan Sanstha looking at their CCTV that is pointing towards Aundh road. The others are posting posters in different areas. Shravani and Ajinkya has just landed into Pune.
2:00 PM
We were scouting for more CCTV cameras around the vasti and found one towards the exit. They asked us to come tomorrow morning. There were more cameras outside a chicken shop and a grocery shop as well.
3:00 PM
We met at Nilgiri Lane, where Carbo ran out of. Shravani and Ajinkya didn’t look too good, some would say pathetic even. We wanted to get CCTV footage from the kennel neighbour’s camera to see in which direction Carbo ran towards. To be honest, I’m not sure why we wanted to know that when there was a confirmed sighting of Carbo being with the girl outside Raj Bhavan. But I think we just wanted to see him on the CCTV camera. Just to look at him. The neighbours didn’t give us the footage and told us that they didn’t see Carbo in the footage which they checked. Their lack of cooperation was a bit surprising given that they had dogs at home too. But we didn’t have energy to dwell on any negativity at that moment.
4:00 - 9:00 PM
At this point different animal communicators are giving us different information. To look for white buildings, two stories, high risers, near a flowing water stream, etc. And we’re just running around trying to find Carbo from these clues. We called it a day in the night.
Day 3 - Helter Skelter
20th August
The tasks for the day included spreading posters, more door to door, getting CCTV footages, reaching out to college students to volunteer, and asking celebrities to share the poster.
7:00 AM
Ajinkya has walked around Pune university spreading Murali (Ajinkya’s family dog who Carbo loves) urine. We’re hoping Carbo smells Murali’s pee and comes out. Others are walking around as well.
At this point we’re also concerned if someone has stolen him. Yes, the Raj Bhavan girl seems most likely but no one has seen them on CCTV footage. Other callers have said Carbo has been spotted in multiple places. So could someone have stolen him? A caller had also told us that a man took him in a rickshaw. But because Carbo hates (not me of course we’re tight) it seems unlikely.
9:00 AM
We had now spotted some CCTV cameras inside Raj Bhavan that point towards the gate. We weren’t sure if the cameras captured the girl but we wanted to look at the footage! Turns out, Raj Bhavan just doesn't hand out CCTV footage. So we had to ask for help if there was any way we could get it.
10:00 AM
Our WhatsApp group Finding Carbo is going crazy now. Multiple people are getting different information reports and we’re all going crazy running in circles. We need a project manager and Mohini was the right person for this. Shravani and I are at Sindh Society looking at their CCTV footage. They were nice enough to give us coffee too. But they had their own going on so couldn’t let us sit the whole day as well.
1:00 PM
Nupur and I went to follow up with one of the CCTV cameras on the exit of the vasti. It was a BJP office and those people were super nice and immediately took out their phone and we went through the footage. AND WE SAW CARBO RUN THROUGH! It felt like a small win at that time. We saw him with a leash to his harness, we saw him run away from the vasti and it confirmed many of the assumptions we had.
We then went to the grocery store CCTV to check if we could spot him, but we couldn’t. So where did he go?
2:00
We started putting posters around the street, talking to people. At this time, I was 100% certain that the girl had him. So it didn’t matter much what Carbo was doing before 3:30 pm or so before the girl held his leash.
Posters were put up in more places at this time. But we needed to get to more people. If the girl has her, how can we get to her?
Mohini was figuring out ways to put an ad in Sakal newspaper and others. We wanted to put leaflets in newspapers of surrounding areas as well.
During the afternoon, more animal communicators are giving us more information. He’s in a hut, he’s in a construction site, he’s in a white building and so on. It was a bit exhausting to be honest as none of the leads before have worked out and I wasn’t in the mood for more life advice from Carbo.
Shravani and Ajinkya were walking through the vasti shouting his name. Can you imagine just walking and screaming your dog’s name into the void? Hoping he hears it? Painful.
6:00 PM
People from Sakal were kind enough to extend their deadline to allow our ad to be placed in the newspaper.
An official police complaint was also filed and we were assigned an inspector to us with anything required. I’ve had my fair share of doubts from the police in the past (i’m no criminal but just doubts nonetheless) but these guys were truly helpful.
I drafted an application to get access to Raj Bhavan CCTV.
More posters were put across the city.
Going through hours of CCTV footage was also challenging. We started seeing Carbo when he wasn’t there. The mood wasn’t great but we were all holding on.
8:00 PM
The whole group met to discuss strategy for tomorrow. We were now considering hiring a private investigator who could possibly get access to cctv footage from places where we didn’t have access to. But we now felt that we had to expand the reach to more parts of Pune. The plan for the following day was to post posters at veterinary clinics and pet shops all over the city, from Kothrud to Wanowrie.
11:00 PM
As we called it a night, Sumedh and I went for a walk to check the metro construction areas on recommendation of an animal communicator. Almost all of the people we spoke to, knew about Carbo but none of them had seen them. We know we were doing all we can and we could the our efforts being effective but they weren’t bearing any credible lead whatsoever.
Day 4 - Finding Carbo > Found Carbo
21st August
12:00 AM
Finding Carbo Instagram page is created to share updates.
7:00 AM
Message was spread in Pimple Nilakh by Charu.
10:00 AM
In our WhatsApp group, the ad in Sakal newspaper was posted. City wide supplement. We are hoping the girl reads Sakal but thought it was unlikely. An animal communicator suggested to check another construction site.
Advertisement in Sakal Newspaper
10:56 AM
Shravani is fed up with animal communicators now. Not only were their locations not beneficial but Carbo wasn’t giving any life advice to her whatsoever. Unknown callers were usually asking her for a description of Carbo in order for them to communicate with him.
One such caller asked Shravani to describe the dog. Reluctantly, she described him. To her surprise, the boy replied “I know this dog”. Shravani thought this was now a random caller who claims to see Carbo like so many other false leads. But then he said “I saw him walking on Aundh road. So my friend took hold of the leash”. Then it clicked! It was the boy and the girl outside Raj Bhavan. Shravani couldn’t control herself. She kept screaming where is Carbo? Where is he? The caller tried to pacify her by saying “Shwaas ghya Madam” (Take a breath). Shravani asked him to send a photo and the photo was Carbo! He continued “I am out of Pune now, so I will share my father’s number.”
Carbo spread across the bed
The boy’s father had seen the ad in Sakal newspaper and contacted Shravani. He was with them at their residence on Prabhat road (no it was not a white building, no construction site, no flowing water, no high rise building).
I called Shravani up to ask her where on Prabhat road as that is closest to my home.
Kapil: Shravani, where is the location on Prabhat road?
Shravani: I want to go meet him before you do.
Kapil: ?!?!?! But we need to make sure this is him and secure him!
Shravani: Hangs up the phone
In the background, Shravani asked Ajinkya if Kapil should go to the location. He screamed YES! So reluctantly she shared the location of Carbo with me.
11:03 AM
I reach the location. He is asleep, resting peacefully without any care. I parked my bike and walked over. He lifted his head up slightly.
Carbo sleeping peacefully
Then he realised it was me. He stood up, helicopter tail wag followed by lots of jumping and licking. After a few minutes we went inside and sat on the couch.
Happy Carbo with Happy Kapil
He was extremely happy to see me and so was I. But the grandmother in the house requested me to not sit on the couch as Carbo likes to spread himself there. So I stood and sat on the chair and Carbo spread himself, put his head on a support and went to sleep.
Carbo spread on the couch after I vacated it
I HAD SO MANY QUESTIONS! But we just had a conversation about Carbo and they had a lot to share about how he stayed with them very happily. He slept with their son in his room. He ate home food and wet food pouches. They used to have a dog before and the girl in the white t-shirt is the boy’s friend who has a dog now. They realised he was lost so secured him. The Raj Bhavan security guards told them to go to the police station but they didn’t know how nice the police were. So they hesitated and decided to take him home instead and then look for his family. They had shared on their personal social media profiles but those posts never made it to us. Carbo was with them all along.
Shravani and Ajinkya burst into tears when they saw him. It was an incredibly happy reunion.
Happy family reunion
8:00 PM
We met at Mohini’s residence to celebrate Carbo. He spent the whole evening chilling with his loved ones. We were all too caught up in the moment to take a photo.
The emotions
I’ve helped in finding missing dogs in the past but I’ve never been so intensely involved from start to end. It started with panic. Then it moved to frantically searching for Carbo. Then it became a big team with mostly people I hadn’t interacted with before. We all felt the same things. There was doubt, there was fear, anxiety, stress, lack of sleep and love for Carbo. We kept pushing each other and pushing together. We had each other’s support to regulate our emotions and continue searching for Carbo. This was a team effort in the truest sense.