Roaring Forties

Heard an amusing anecdote from a friend, William who has been in the air freight business for three decades. When William started out as a new recruit, one of his first assignment was to arrange to send a dog by air freight to Holland. He collected the dog from an expatriate living in one of the posh bungalows in P.J. He recalled entering into this mansion sized bungalow and the “Ang Moh” went upstairs to one of the rooms to bring the dog down. The dog was then led into a special cage designed for air freight and the “Ang Moh” instructed William specifically that he must feed the dog before the flight.

William took custody of the dog and drove the van to the air freight warehouse in the old Subang airport. After all the documentation was accomplished, William remembered that he was supposed to feed the dog before the flight. So William opened the cage to carry out the task. To his horror, the dog jumped out of the cage and ran. It continued running and headed straight out of the warehouse. William tried to chase but he couldn’t keep up with the dog and soon lost the dog totally.

William was utterly devastated. Being new on the job, he would surely get the sack. He could not air freight an empty cage to Holland. Being young and reckless, William went to the Subang airport car park. There were numerous stray dogs there. He caught a dark brown one which looked like the one he lost. He promptly loaded the stray dog into the cage and sent it Amsterdam.

For the next three weeks, William lived in anticipation of a phone call from the dog owner. He jumped at each call that came in. It was agony. Days turned to a week. Then it was two weeks. Finally after the third week, William could relax. The stray dog has found a new owner in Holland while the runaway must be running with some wild pack in Subang.