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Zack Keithy, our author, is a certified veterinarian technician (UC Blue Ash) for over 6 years (contact him here). The articles written here are based on his expertise and experience, combined with a review by our expert vet reviewers including Dr M. Tarantino. Learn more about us here.
Jiku, a two year old Maltese, has been missing from the Al Mushrif area of Abu Dhabi since July 3, 2026, disappearing just two days after his owner, Priyanka Tamang, and her fiancé moved into a new home nearby. More than two months later, the reward for his safe return has doubled to Dh30,000, after a Dubai businesswoman who heard Jiku’s story stepped in and added Dh15,000 of her own, on top of an earlier increase from Dh5,000 to Dh15,000 contributed by a local real estate company.
The clearest lead so far came on August 5, near the home Tamang lived in before the move. Jiku was sighted close to a dumpster in the area, but the timing never lined up, he was seen there in the morning, while the family was out searching that same spot later that night. “When we heard about that sighting, we were so hopeful that this might finally be the moment we would bring him home,” Tamang told Gulf News. “But as the days passed without another confirmed sighting, that hope slowly faded and it was devastating all over again.” There has been no confirmed sighting of him since.
Tamang described how differently the search feels now compared to the beginning. “In July, I was completely heartbroken. I could barely eat or sleep properly because Jiku was constantly on my mind, and there were days when I felt like I was losing hope.” Two months on, she says something has shifted. “Now, strangely, even though more than two months have passed, I feel more hopeful. So many people across the UAE have come forward to help, and I’ve heard of dogs being reunited with their families even after many months or years.”
Her working theory is that Jiku is alive and being cared for by someone who simply hasn’t connected him to the search yet, possibly someone who isn’t active on social media or doesn’t follow local news closely. That’s part of why she has kept distributing flyers and sharing his microchip details with veterinary clinics across the UAE directly, rather than relying on social media alone. The search hasn’t come without difficulty, prank calls have continued throughout, some opening with the exact words she’s been hoping to hear before turning into mockery. Even so, she says she answers every call. “We cannot take that chance. Even if we receive ten prank calls, the eleventh call could be somebody who has actually seen Jiku.”
My thoughts: What stands out most is the August 5 sighting, not because it ended the search, but because of exactly how it didn’t, a matter of hours separating a family from the dog they’d been looking for. That kind of near miss would break most people’s resolve, yet Tamang describes feeling more hopeful now than she did in the early weeks, which isn’t the emotional arc you’d expect after two months of searching. Her decision to keep answering every prank call, on the off chance the next one is real, says a lot about what sustained searches like this actually require, not one dramatic effort, but a willingness to keep showing up for something that offers no guarantees.
Source: Gulf News
