Sweetie, a deaf dog from Nuwakot, survived alone for five days after Nepal's devastating floods and has now been reunited with her family.
Her family had tried to move her to safety before the floodwaters rose, but Sweetie could not hear their calls; the family later found her alive after repeatedly searching the devastated neighbourhood.
The reunion came with heartbreak: the family had two dogs, both of whom had lived with them for more than five years, but only Sweetie survived the floods.
Sweetie went missing on August 26, when a wall of water and debris tore through Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts. A glacier collapse near Langtang Lirung had triggered a large flash flood along the Trishuli River.
The disaster has killed over 600 people in Nepal, and about 2,500 people remain missing on both sides of the Nepal-China border, including several foreign nationals.
Shrestha, a housewife from Dhunge Bazaar in Nuwakot district, told Outlook India that her family knew the flood was coming while Sweetie was in the kitchen. “We tried to get her to move to a safer place, but she wouldn’t leave, as she can’t hear. We kept on calling her.” She ran to the rooftop instead and stayed there alone as the water rose around her.
For five days, no one knew if she had survived. Her family searched the flooded neighbourhood again and again, hoping to hear a bark, hoping to see her somewhere in the wreckage. “Each day without her felt longer than the one before.”
When she was found, Sweetie was quiet and shaken. She did not bark. She did not whine.
“It was a very emotional moment for us when we got her back after five days,” Shrestha said. “She is not speaking or making any sound. We had two dogs, but only one could survive. Both of them had been living with us for more than five years.”
Nepal is still counting its losses. Whole villages along the Trishuli River have been washed away, bridges and roads destroyed, and rescue teams are still searching for those unaccounted for, days after the flood struck.
For Shrestha’s family, Sweetie’s return was a small, rare piece of good news amid the devastation. It is a reminder that even after one of Nepal’s worst floods in years, something can still come home safe.
For a family that lost one dog to the floods, holding Sweetie again was proof that hope, however small, was worth holding on to.
The water levels in the Bhotekoshi River rose again on Sunday, days after a devastating flash flood struck the area, prompting Nepalese authorities to caution search and rescue personnel in the flood-hit districts to remain alert. The Bhotekoshi River, which flows south from the Himalayan border region, carried massive volumes of water downstream into central Nepal during flash floods on Wednesday. The death toll from the flash floods, which caused widespread devastation, has surged to nearly 700.
