Lost

Reading Joey's blog about being lost reminds me of my own experience. It happened about 2 years ago. Let me tell you what happened, with the help of a little diagram.

Well, we lived on the 12th floor, but sometimes my M will take the lift to the 11th floor and walk up one floor if the lift on our floor happens to be busy. I usually memorise the way home, which is "go out the lift door, turn left, round the corner, up the stairs, out the door.... and home sweet home!

My M usually unleashes me in the estate when I'm going for my pee break (almost everyone in the estate knows me, that's how famous I am there.. hee hee). So on that fateful day, after my pee break, we took the lift which stopped on the 11th floor.

As you can see from the diagram, there are 2 staircases which are mirror images, leading to the same levels.

Floor plan


Unfortunately, on that day, someone on the 11th floor was moving, so there were lots of huge cartons and cupboards right in front of the lift. My M, having assumed that I would be following behind her, and also coz this is such a routine route that I should know my way, walked in front.

She took the correct route (red arrow) home but I was confused by all the boxes that instead of turning left, I turned right (pink arrow). The floor layout looked so similar that I made a wrong turn and went up the wrong flight of stairs. And promptly lost my way.

My M, on reaching the 12th floor and turning around, did not see me, so she went back down, calling me name. I could hear her calling but I couldn't make out where the voice was coming from. I ran up and down the stairs so many times that I got utterly confused. Each floor looks exactly the same!

My M wasn't too worried that I would get out of the estate coz she knows the security guards know who I belong to. So no matter what happens, I will be in the estate. But she had to climb up and down both flight of stairs 2-3 times looking for me and calling my name. I did try to respond by whining but I don't think she heard me.

In the end, I found my way home, but it looked kinda different. And I think some guests arrived while we were gone too. So I went to my M's room to rest and as expected, I soon heard my M calling my name! I ran out of the door.... and got smacked.

Blur me.... I went to the wrong house. No wonder the furniture looked so different. No wonder 'my room' looks so different. No wonder we had 'strangers' in our house.

My M then brought me back to our real house, and I got a thorough scolding for not following her.. and landing up in other people's house.

(M: I was walking my 4th round up the stairs when I heard someone said 'Who's dog is that?'. I ran towards the person and asked her if she found a dog. She said a dog ran into their house (their door was opened), went straigt into what was supposedly 'my room' (coz the building layout is all the same), plonked himself down and refused to move. Luckily the kids were overjoyed at having a dog come to their house. It was so embarrassing. I apologised to the parents (who were quite nice about it) and smacked him. So that at least the neighbours know I discipline the dog. This is one of the stupidest things he had done. I wonder why he did not realise the look and 'smell' of the house is different, maybe something wrong with his nose.