Still a very nice start to the new year for Marion and Gérard van de Ven from Waalwijk. Their Scottish Collie Zivah, who had been missing since ten o’clock on Tuesday evening – after she was startled by fireworks – has been found again. “A man who found her here in Waalwijk picked her up, took her home and immediately called us,” Marion says with relief on Wednesday evening. “She is now lying on the couch. Still tired and a bit stressed, but she is back.”
Gérard searched for Zivah for hours on Wednesday. His pedometer already stood at 28 kilometers on Wednesday afternoon. But the search remained without results. Until they finally received the redeeming phone call. “Zivah was found on the Winterdijk in Waalwijk. I was quiet for a moment,” says Marion. But since the beginning of the evening, 2025 has been a thing of the past for her. The relief is very great. “We hope we never experience this again,” she says.
Gérard took Zivah out well before midnight on New Year’s Eve, but the eleven-month-old dog ran away when fireworks landed right in front of her paws. “She was shocked and pulled away,” Marion said earlier this Wednesday.
Gérard was almost home around ten o’clock when he saw three boys working with fireworks in the Anna van Burenstraat in Waalwijk. “I asked if they wanted to stop for a moment so I could pass with the dogs,” he said. But the three didn’t stop. When fireworks landed in front of Zivah’s paws, Gérard could no longer hold her: “She was gone.”
Gérard was left bewildered with two other dogs – including a guest – which he also had on a leash. He was two minutes from home.
Zivah was not injured by the fireworks, but was very shocked. So bad that Gérard and Marion suspected that she had been hiding for a long time. That is also what people from the Waar is our Angel foundation – which helps in the search for missing pets – said to them.
“We’ve searched everywhere, but all to no avail.”
According to them, the neighborhood where Marion and Gérard live has long been a madhouse when it comes to fireworks. But until Tuesday, Zivah was actually coping well. However, on Tuesday evening, according to her owners, it came so close that it became too much for her.
Immediately on Tuesday evening, Gérard started looking for Zivah. And this first day of the new year was also dominated by the search campaign. Together with his sister-in-law and a good acquaintance, he searched everywhere. “We went out with about five people,” Marion said earlier. “We’ve searched everywhere, but all to no avail.”
When Marion and Gérard’s courage had almost sunk, the redeeming phone call came. The man who found Zivah had heard about the search and immediately called the couple. As a result, Zivah was reunited with her owners at the beginning of the evening.
The only thing Marion hopes for now is a complete ban on fireworks. “If something has to be signed for this, I will be the first,” she says combatively.