Article: Lawyer doggedly looking for her pets

Friday September 25, 2009

By LOH FOON FONG

PETALING JAYA: It has been two months since her two shih tzus have gone missing, but owner Esther Chik is determined to keep on searching.

So intent was she to find her dogs that she even paid thousands of ringgit to shout out her plight in a huge billboard put up along the busy stretch of the LDP.

"I just want my dogs back. I am very attached to them," said the 33-year-old lawyer who lost the dogs to burglars who had broken into her house on July 22.

Chik: 'I just want my dogs back'

Her shih tzus are a mother and daughter pair. The elder one is a milky white nine-year-old called Wa Wa, while her baby is Bi Bi, a six-year-old with light brown fur and patches.

"We have been together for close to 10 years. Before I got married, we slept in the same room and she had her own bed and blanket," Chik said of Wa Wa.

During the first month after her dogs were stolen, Chik was very emotional.

"I kept crying. I would hand out flyers on Wa Wa and Bi Bi in coffeeshops and pet shops, and the tears would just flow," she said.

Chik said her husband Alvin Lim, a senior bank officer, was also sad as he was quite attached to Bi Bi.

As for the unconventional method of advertising her missing dogs using the billboard, Lee believed the money spent was worth it.

Chik in front of the billboard along the Damansara- Puchong Highway hoping someone will give her information on her shih tzus. — DARRAN TAN / The Star

"I think the billboard will be effective in spreading the message. It is just that nobody has seen my dogs. I think I paid a reasonable amount for the billboard. Space in the newspaper classifieds is very expensive as well."

It is learnt that it costs between RM2,000 and RM10,000 a month to advertise on a billboard in Selangor.

The billboard off Jalan SS4 caught the eye of a passer-by who sent in a picture to The Star's Thumbnails page in August.

Chik said she had received many genuine calls but when she went to check them out, the dogs were not hers.

She is offering an unspecified amount as reward for the safe return of her dogs.

Anyone with information can contact Chik and her husband at 012 286 5014 and 016 206 7740 respectively; or the number on the billboard 012-2566404 .

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Nation 25 September 2009