I try to follow what's going on with the search for this beautiful
d*g, and sometimes find new information, but they've never found
her. They say whippets can revert to feral quickly, so sadly she
may never be found.

The latest updated web page that I've found:

http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-lspets4769476jun05,0,203647.column?col
l=ny-rightrail-columnist

(in case that site also requires registration, I'm pasting it.
Google search results don't need registration, so I never know if
just posting a link will lead to that, sorry)

<begin C&P>
The saga of Vivi continues ...

June 5, 2006

Whatever happened to that whippet from JFK?

I get that query via e-mail at least several times a week, not to
mention the computer-less lady in Galveston, Texas, who calls
every month or so.

Most everybody knows who the JFK whippet is, thanks to the media
splash her disappearance made in mid-February: Vivi, a California
show dog fresh from competing at Westminster, sped off into the
airport marshlands after breaking free from her crate.

What many don't know is that Vivi is very much around - in
cyberspace, at least.

Soon after Vivi's great escape, I began chronicling search efforts
on my blog (www.newsday.com/animal house). Among other things, it
explains why recovering Vivi would be such a challenge:
Sighthounds, bred to chase fast game, are notoriously independent
and quickly turn feral when lost. It's like trying to catch a cat
on rollerskates.

The blog has become an electronic tapestry that documents the
twists and turns of the Vivi search: The fruitless first days at
the airport, from pawprints on the restricted shoreline to
quilt-wrapped traps that stayed empty but for the occasional irate
tomcat.

Then, in mid-March, a breakthrough: two pet-detection dogs picked
up a trail that led to 110-acre Baisley Pond Park, just north of
the airport.

Days later, Vivi surfaced in Flushing: She scarfed down bread
tossed by a resident and touched noses with a Doberman out on a
late-night walk. Again, tracking dogs confirmed her presence.
Kissena Park, downtown Flushing, the Queens Botanical Garden,
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park - Vivi toured them all. Volunteers
widened the circle with their "lost dog" fliers, which sanitation
workers then removed with great efficiency.

In April, Vivi headed north, with sightings in College Point -
where camera-monitored feeding stations are still watched - and
later Whitestone. By May, the "I-saw-a- little-white-dog" calls
shifted south, to Alley Pond Park.

And then, barely two weeks ago, the wandering whippet's latest
curve ball: Unconfirmed sightings back near Kennedy Airport -
Brookville Boulevard and South Conduit Avenue in Rosedale; and
105th Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard, and 144th Street and 119th
Avenue, both in Jamaica.

Late last week, a sighting put Vivi in Valley Stream, near its
eponymous state park and Franklin General Hospital.

What to make of this travelogue? On the one hand, it may be a
stunning testament to the connectedness of the borough's
greenways. (Unlike Van Wyck-obsessed Elaine Benes on "Seinfeld,"
it looks like Vivi takes the Cross Island and the Southern State.)
On the other hand, callers are inclined to call any little white
dog Vivi.

And what of recent reports of a whippet stopping traffic on the
Hutchinson Parkway in the Bronx? Does Vivi do bridges? Is she
still even alive?

Meanwhile, Vivi-mania rages on my blog, to the tune of 5,000 hits
a day. Volunteers who call themselves "foot soldiers" report on
where fliers are needed. Others obsess that Vivi is in heat and
birthing illegitimate "whip-pits." Despite repeated assertions
from experts that sighthounds are usually caught by luck or
accident, frustrated "doers" float dangerous notions such as dart
guns and drop nets. A lady named Sharon from Michigan posts a
daily prayer - or two, or three.

And Vivi's owners and breeders - who have returned to their daily
lives on the other coast - look on, grateful for the support, but
keenly aware of its disproportion.

"There are thousands of other dogs out there who deserve every bit
as much attention," writes Vivi's breeder, Bo Bengtson, who has
repeatedly said that chasing or approaching Vivi is only more
likely to make her run.

But like Barbaro the injured racehorse, Vivi is a reverse
Cinderella. Her showdog status satisfies our fascination with the
elite and beautiful, while her misfortune elicits emotions - pity
and concern - that democratize her.

The blog's comments percolate with compassion, as well as
snarkiness ("I can search better than you") and obsession (with
rival splinter groups of searchers). They say far more about human
nature than they do about Vivi. For better or worse, the blog is a
community - or maybe a cult - centered around a little snip of a
lost dog. And no matter what the pushpins on the map say, it's the
one place on Earth where you can always find her.
<end C&P>

Vivi Blog: http://newsday.typepad.com/news_local_flaim/