A Vancouver couple is crediting the Downtown Eastside community and police, for finding their two and a half year old pug, who went missing for nearly a week last month.
Munchy means everything to us,” Jessica Chen told Global News in an interview. “I would say Munchy was the beginning of our relationship.”
Chen and her partner, Warren Chen, went to high school together in Taiwan and got Munchy when they started dating during university. Jessica attended UBC while Warren went to the University of Washington in Seattle.
The pug has accompanied the couple on road trips to California, Arizona and Nevada, but his latest adventure unfolded in Vancouver.
“The first night, it was really like, intense and scary,” Jessica recalled.
Munchy disappeared on the evening of April 20, shortly after Warren said he and a close friend of his, who had been visiting from Taiwan, returned to his downtown Vancouver apartment.
While Warren was in the washroom, he said his friend took Munchy outside for a walk, without the dog’s leash – or the couple’s permission.
Warren said they were able to track the friend using the ‘Find My’ app, which showed he was heading towards East Hastings and Chinatown.
When he said strangers eventually brought his friend back to their building near Smithe and Beatty Streets, Munchy was not present, and the couple had already started scouring the Downtown Eastside for the missing pug.
“These people out here on the streets are really willing to help you out no matter what,” Warren told Global News.
The Chens said they walked East Hastings Street day and night, handing out and putting up hundreds of missing dog posters.
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Munchy was spotted at EZ Dog in Chinatown sometime after April 20.
“A lady bought a whole bunch of product for the dog and said somebody was taking care of the dog,” owner Farrell Augustin said.
At the time, EZ Dog’s owner said he didn’t know Munchy was missing, and the dog seemed pretty happy.
“It didn’t seem like a missing dog, wasn’t nervous, wasn’t like, scared at all, just a happy-go-lucky type of dog,” Augustin said in an interview.
As soon as he saw a missing poster across the street, Augustin said he alerted Munchy’s owners.
On April 24, Warren said he flagged down two police officers on patrol in the 100-block of East Pender Street.
“He said, ‘Hey, I lost my dog a few days ago, can you just keep an eye out for him?’” Const. Nick Northey recalled in an interview.
Munchy’s owner showed the pair a poster and gave them photos of Munchy for reference.
“Lo and behold, the next day, we happened to see Munchy walking with somebody else,” said Const. Daniel Haynes.
On Saturday, April 25, the District 5 officers were walking outside of the Woodwards building on Abbott Street, when they saw someone heading into the Nesters store with the pug.
“I just go, we found him, like, it’s definitely him,” said Northey.
The VPD officers kept an eye on Munchy, and called the Chens, who said they were five minutes away.
“As soon as his family came up, Munchy was pulling away the leash, jumping up on them,” recalled Haynes.
“We were so excited,” said Jessica. “We were jumping like crazy.”
Haynes said the woman who Munchy was found with told the officers she’s had dogs before, and was pretty sure she wasn’t going to be able to keep the pug for long as he probably belonged to somebody.
Still, Haynes said she was happy to have been able to take care of Munchy for a few days and help reunite him with his owners.
“’Shannon’ is a really nice woman because she said she bought Munchy off another homeless guy that she thought was in a worse condition,” Jessica told Global News. “She knew that, I guess, the guy wouldn’t be able to take care of Munchy, so she said she spent like $400 to get him back.”
“She had got the dog toys and she had bathed him and she was taking care of him pretty well,” added Haynes.
The couple gave ‘Shannon’ a reward and offered to stay in touch.
“If they want to play with Munchy anytime, we can meet at a park or a dog park and then they can hang out,” said Jessica.
The Chens said Munchy slept for a couple of days after his five-day Downtown Eastside journey, but now has his energy back.
They said they’re touched by the outpouring of humanity they experienced during a stressful time, and want to give a shout-out to the Downtown Eastside community and the VPD.
“Thank you all for helping out and we really appreciate you guys,” said Warren.
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