Vivi, the Champion Whippet who bolted from her crate after competing at the Westminster Dog Show, is being sighted again in New York. According to Denise Flaim and Susan, who barked in below, Vivi was recently seen in Queens at Forest Park.

Let’s hope it’s true and someone can still bring Vivi home!

You can help bring Vivi home by helping look for her in Queens. If you’re in the Atlanta area, you can help find and bring home another Whippet, Ticket, who is also missing. Denise Flaims, who writes the Animal House blog at Newsday.com, has made a point of following the Vivi search.

Thanks to Susan Lorinsky who has been a tireless volunteer and advocate for maintaining the Vivi search, barked in to let us all know the latest news.

Susan Lorinsky wrote:
Hello,
My name is Susan Lorinsky and for the past 8+ months, I have been involved, long distance with the Vivi search. Vivi is the whippet who won best breed at Westminster and got out of her crate at JFK Airport on Feb. 15th. She is still missing.

We are asking for help in e-mailings, faxings, mailings and contacting businesses, vets, schools, etc. in the Queens and Brooklyn NY areas. Also we are asking if anyone on this blog is from those areas if they could help out the group of “Foot Soldiers” who have been searching for Vivi and postiing flyers, posters,etc. They need more feet on the ground and any help that can be given would be extremely appreciated.

They are a great group of gals who in their searchings have rescued various dogs, puppies, & kittens. The pets have been either reunited with their owners or if they were abandoned, have found loving homes for them. They have put in a lot of time and dedication and now need more help. If you can help in any way, please contact the Animal house Newsday.com blog set up by Denise Flaim. They can then get in touch with you. Thank you for your help. We will find Vivi.

Susan Lorinsky CT

And this is the most recent news from Susan:

Hi Joy,
Vivi was sighted 2 weeks ago Thursday at Forest Park. A man saw her in the road at 6am, stopped his car got out and yelled Fifi. She looked at him before running off. He did a positive ID from a series of pictures and even called Rick and Jill who are co-owners of Vivi to tell them. The searchers set up feeding stations and cameras in a few areas at the park which is very large. If anyone can help these fantastic ladies with the searching and watching which they do in shifts around the clock, contact the site at Animal House Newsday.com and click on the caption about Denise Flam. There is a real concentrated effort to try to lure her in while the weather is still cooperating. Any help will be appreciated.

There is also a lost 11 yr old whippet named Ticket who is lost in Georgia (near Atlanta). Three bloggers on our blog have been helping long distance with flyers, faxing, etc. There is a need for foot soldiers there as the family’s son who lives there goes to college and works so he can only search on weekends. Ticket lives with his parents in Florida. If anyone can help with Ticket, they can post on the same blog. Thanks for your help. Have a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year. May our lost pups be found very soon.

Susan

Here is the most recent posting from Denise flaim’s blog:

Show dog search now a game of cat and mouse?
BY DENISE FLAIM
Newsday Staff Writer

December 4, 2006

Reports of Vivi’s death are greatly exaggerated.

That’s the feeling among some searchers still looking for the champion whippet, who bolted from her crate Feb. 15 after competing at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show the day before.

In late November, searchers invited Oklahoma-based pet detective Karin Goin to canvass the Glendale neighborhood in southwest Queens where Vivi sightings were called in regularly until late summer. Unable to find a recent scent with her tracking dogs, Goin concluded that the brindle-and-white show dog, who looks like a miniature greyhound, had likely died. In short order, The Associated Press dubbed Vivi an “urban legend,” and the dedicated knot of volunteer searchers considered disbanding.

Then, according to searcher Rosa Chile of Hollis, last Monday a motorist on Park Lane South in Glendale’s Forest Park reported almost hitting an emaciated white dog that was trying to cross the road. Recognizing the dog from media reports, but a bit fuzzy on the details, the man jumped out of the car and shouted “Fifi!” The startled dog looked at him, then darted into the park.

“We’ve got this lineup of dogs,” said Chile, referring to a montage of a dozen canine “mug shots” that she shows to people who have claimed to see Vivi. “And when we showed him, he pointed right to the dog and all he kept saying, all excited, was, ‘That’s it, that’s it, that’s it!'”

Much as she would like to believe Vivi has resurfaced, search coordinator Bonnie Folz of Howard Beach is cautiously optimistic. “It’s very possible that was her, and she has found a good place to hide,” concluded Folz, who has compared Vivi to the mob – just when she thinks she’s out, the dog pulls her back in.

“But we’d really like some more sightings to be sure.”