Vivi, the prize-winning dog who went missing before being loaded onto a flight to California at John F. Kennedy International Airport, has been seen about eight times in the past week in the Flushing, N.Y. area, according to witnesses.
The dogs co-owner, Jil Walton, said Vivi was seen seven or eight times in the past week in Queens, about 10 miles north of the airport. The latest sighting was around 3:45 a.m. EST Wednesday, March 22, when a man said he saw Vivi in Flushing Cemetery while walking his own dog.
More than 100 volunteers have been patrolling neighborhoods, posting fliers and making phone calls for 3-year-old Vivi since she fled the airport Feb. 15 just before being loaded on a flight to Los Angeles. Vivi had won an award at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show two days earlier.
Walton is offering a $5,000 reward for the dog.
There's been an incredible army of volunteers that have been helping me with this, Walton told Bloomberg news service during a phone interview from Flushing Cemetery, where she and her fianc were setting humane traps for Vivi. To imagine an award-winning Whippet from California loose in New York people feel for her.
A stakeout is planned for 6 a.m. Saturday, March 25, during which volunteers will sit and watch for Vivi, instead of merely searching an area where she's already been seen.
Vivi is a purebred Whippet, a sighthound that looks similar to a Greyhound, only smaller. She's mostly white with dark brown patches, brown ears and a dark head, with a white stripe down her face.
Click to read the latest update on the status of Vivi
Posted March 24, 2006, 5 a.m. EST