Posted Courtesy of the American Whippet Club
No news yesterday. Vivi has been gone for eight weeks today. She continues to be spotted frequently by different people in the area where she has been for a couple of weeks now. We are of course worrying about how she's doing, what condition she is in, etc. Rosa and Tina, who are taking the calls, tell me that a woman who saw her pretty close up today said she was "beautiful" which indicates she can't be in too bad shape. A 10-year old boy said she was following him for a while, as if she wanted to play, which is also encouraging. We cannot of course be absolutely sure that its Vivi who is seen every time, but the descriptions are pretty convincing. If even half of them are correct, Vivi is still around and coping much better than anticipated.
What's frustrating is that none of the volunteers and none of the owners have caught even a glimpse of Vivi since she was lost. Sometimes it feels as if were chasing a ghost, but its impossible to discount the evidence from earlier tracking dogs and the many different sightings, some of which corroborate each other.
There is also evidence that Vivi has hunted and killed small game in the park. What was found was not even entirely eaten, which would confirm that there are lots of feeding opportunities for stray dogs in this area and that Vivi is not starving.
Jils fianc Rick will go back to NY again shortly and spend a week mainly hanging around the area where Vivi has been seen. Vivi loves Rick, and if she's calmer and less worried about being chased now we hope she will come to him.
I will post news when I have any, but basically this is a waiting game now. We are hoping that some sensible local resident will put out food often enough for Vivi to come back to one place and eventually feel comfortable enough to let herself be caught.
Thanks for all your kind messages.
Bo
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Bo Bengston is Vivi's breeder and Editor-at-Large for Dogs in Review magazine. Both Dogs in Review and DogChannel.com are published by BowTie Inc. Bengtson's updates originally appear in their entirety on the American Whippet Club website.
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For more information visit the American Whippet Club website.
Posted: April 14, 2006, 5 a.m. EST