Having driven more than 1,000km in a desperate bid to find her missing dog this past week‚ Westering resident Karien van der Merwe was overjoyed on Sunday after Gelvandale police managed to rescue the dog on Saturday night. The female Staffordshire bull terrier‚ Eezy‚ was found chained up having been sold for dog-fighting.Her teeth had been filed into sharp points as is practice in the shadowy world of dog-fighting‚ and she had been given steroid injections to build muscle for fighting.Van der Merwe‚ 29‚ an education student‚ said Eezy had gone missing last Sunday.“The dogs never get out of the yard. We came home and I noticed they were gone. I immediately went looking for them.”She found her basset hound‚ but there was no sign of Eezy.“We’ve had her for six years. We adopted Eezy from another family who didn’t want her anymore as she was too naughty‚” Van der Merwe said.“After the theft‚ I fell behind in my work at NMMU [because] I couldn’t think of anything else but to find my dog.“We drove the equivalent of the road from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg [1 064km] to find her.”She first drove around the streets of Westering looking for Eezy‚ some nights until 4.30am.“Eezy had nine puppies and then we had her sterilised. One of them is still with us and she was so stressed when her mom disappeared. She didn’t even want to eat‚” Van der Merwe said.“I was driving up and down looking for her. Nobody had seen her. I heard rumours that people were stealing dogs for dog-fighting and that they were driving around taking pictures.“Then my car broke. I borrowed a car to keep looking‚ but she was just gone.“I had already put on my pyjamas [on Saturday night]‚ but my husband said‚ ‘let’s go look for Eezy’.“We drove towards Malabar and stopped at a shebeen. A woman there said we must go look at Malabar Extension 6 as this was where another woman found her dog that had been stolen for dog-fighting.“Let me tell you‚ we were very scared driving in there. We were actually quite panicky. At one stage I said let’s just turn around.“As my husband took the turn I saw a black dog on a chain.“She was wagging her tail and trying to get to us.“We went to the Gelvandale police station for assistance. I was very impressed by them. They drove with us and we got our dog.“The man at the house said his son bought the dog from another man for dog-fighting.“We have opened a case of theft‚” Van der Merwe said.She said Eezy was overjoyed to see her.“She just wouldn’t stop wagging her tail. Even today‚ she just runs up to us and licks us. It is like she is saying thank you.”Van der Merwe said she was surprised at how much Eezy’s appearance was altered by those who took her.“They gave her steroid injections so she is much more muscular and they filed her teeth‚” she said.“For others who lose their dogs‚ I just want to say‚ never give up. Get in your car and go look for your dog.”..