Saturday, February 6, 2010

Griffy Is Still Lost

The track on Thursday night showed us that Griffy is traveling more than we were assuming he was traveling. But we do believe he is looping back around to the area he was lost from. He's going in normally high traffic areas, but he may be doing it overnight when there is no traffic. During the track on Thursday night, volunteers spoke with a man that had seen Griffy 2 nights earlier, while he was working the night shift -- Griffy walked right past him. This was near where Little River and Columbia Turnpikes meet.

Something that the track showed us is that Griffy is smart enough to find cover in places we might not think of. The tracking dog found a heavy scent pool under someone's deck, meaning he may have spent a night there. We don't believe he is sitting in the middle of a field allowing snow to fall around him while he's buried in it. He has probably found a small space that his 18 lb body can fit into so that he is not quite as exposed to the elements as we might imagine.

The inclement weather that started yesterday has been severe enough to have prevented more than a very few people from being able to get out to continue fliering. Today, Gail is using the internet today to try to reach people. Below is a posting to WUSA 9's wall:

This is as good a use of any for this frustrating time when we are snow bound!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Tracking with PGPT

10:50pm -- trying to prepare an update . . .  Sam has Brando out trailing Griffy's scent and he's now a long way from where he starte . . .  check back . . .

OK, so to close the gap between the last update from very late Tuesday night . . .

A food & scent station had been set up in Ossian Park after Griffy's good friend, Paul from the Annandale Pet Spa, had spoken to someone that saw him there. Then late on Tuesday evening, neighbors in the area that had seen a flier were in the park, and they heard tags jingling, saw tracks in the snow that could have been Griffy's and heard one small faint bark that might have been Griffy. But the feeding and scent stations have been checked since then and there has been no activity.

So with no confirmed sightings, we decided to take advantage of the fact that Sam, with Pure Gold Pet Trackers, was relatively close to our area, and we decided to bring her out to confirm or deny that Griffy is in the area.

She arrived at the meeting place near the park at 8:30pm on Thursday, which was over 2 1/2 hours ago. They were still tracking when I hung up the phone a few minutes ago. For too much of the track, I wasn't looking at a map, but a little while ago, I was getting a play by play, and Griffy had traveled a LONG way from where he started. Last I heard, he was in the parking lot of the Honey Pig, where Daniels Ave & Maple Pl meet . . .  now they are on Evergreen Lane and Alpine Drive . . . now they are back accross Little River Turnpike, almost to John Marr -- where they will walk in front of the Annandale Pet Spa.

12:45 and they are still going; they went back accross 236 to the Giant . . .  to the Fuddruckers . . .

Check back for the latest . . .

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Tags, More Tracks & a Little Bark

This evening, neighbors in the area around Ossian Hall Park heard what may have been the jingling of Griffy's dog tags, and one little dog bark, and they also saw tracks in the snow that they believe may be Griffy's. Thanks to this neighbor for emailing this "sighting+" to Gail!

Gail and Griffy are lucky to have people like these neighbors, who were willing to take time out of their evening to go out in the freezing cold, while the rest of us were enjoying the comfort of our warm homes, and look for Griffy despite the fact that they have never met him or Gail. That's one way sightings are generated - by going out to search for him, which Gail has been doing since Griffy vanished.

What's tricky is that dogs tend to get weird after they have been out on their own like Griffy has, when the only life they had ever known has been as a pampered housepet. If Griffy is like so many lost dogs before him, he is now seeing humans as something to avoid. Things like calling his name and making eye contact, which work fine when he's not lost and is out on a neighborhood stroll with his mom, tend to backfire while he's in this state. There are lots of things we tend to do when we see a "stray" dog that, unbeknown to us, will have the opposite effect from what we intend, and we unknowingly cause a dog in this mode to retreat. There's a lllloooottttt of proof of this - in the history of lost dogs.

So we've got a list of Do's & Don'ts for anyone in a position to see Griffy -- whether you encounter him by accident or if you go out looking for him. Gail would be forever indebted to you if you would go searching for him, so please don't let this discourage you, but do give a read to these guidelines.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Thank$!

Thanks to the first contributor for hopefully getting the ball rolling on fundraisin for the search for Griffy!

Because Griffy's disappearance was the result of an auto accident that is covered under insurance, Gail anticipates she will be reimbursed fully for her expenses. Of course, that's great, but it's no help at all when just fronting the money for all the expenses associated with the search is a hardship. So, fundraising was a must.

For anyone donating, know that when the reimbursement money comes, it will be donated to a worthy cause, though it is undetermined at this time. And for anyone printing your own copies of the flier and biz cards to pass out, save your receipts! They can be submitted to the insurance company if they are available by the deadline, and you can get reimbursed directly. Please take advantage of this.

As for what are the costs of a search for a lost dog, they have already incurred one track by a trained scent trailing dog, and more such tracks may be needed. Fliers have already been produced, and MANY more are needed, along with more prominent posters and signs, and also business cards. Ads have been placed in periodicals already, and more are needed. Postcard mailers may need to go out if the fliers continue to be taken down. As yet, we are not thinking of a voicemail blast (like FindToto or LostMyDoggie, but if it later seems important, that would be costly. So, all in all, the goods and services in a lost dog search really add up.

So thank you to Griffy's first contributor, and thanks in advance to those who follow!

Possible Sighting - Monday Morning

Hopefully it was Griffy that was seen by a surveyor in Ossian Hall Park yesterday morning! Here's what I think happened, if I got the story right from Gail (and I'll correct if it not) . . .

Paul, who owns the Annandale Pet Spa and who is as heartsick as is Griffy's mom, Gail, over the little guy's disappearance, went walking his own dogs in Ossian Hall Park during the day yesterday. He came accross some surveyors in the park, and spoke to them about Griffy. One of the surveyors said that he had seen a small brown animal moving, earlier that day in the morning, and he initially figured it was something like a rabbit. But when the animal turned around, he saw that it wasn't a rabbit.

Well, at the point when I heard that, I got kind of excited and the rest of Gail's story of Paul's walk in the park was a bit of a blur! But the bottom line is that the surveyor does think it could have been Griffy. And it does make sense that Griffy would be there. Apparently there are cat feeding stations in Ossian Hall Park, so he may have been getting some food that way.

Before we got off the phone, Gail was gathering up something with her scent, a bully stick and a toy, and also kibble and Little Ceasars, to take to put down in the spot where the surveyor saw the animal. She was also due to check the feeding station she had put down Sunday night, at a church.

I'd love it love it love it if she can come back with signs that he's been there. I really want us to be at least one step closer to Griffy!

Gail certainly has a good friend in Paul at the Annandale Pet Spa. It seems that he has generated a sighting by putting himself in the area where there is good reason to believe that Griffy may be hunkering down.

By tonight, the sighting will be plotted on the map.

Update After Noon:  Picture taken from Gail's phone when she went to check out the area of the sighting and leave a food & scent station. They lead to a drainage ditch where we believe he may be taking some refuge. I can't tell much from the picture, and I guess you had to be there! But if Gail thinks they look like they could be Griffy's then this is a great development.

 

Monday, February 1, 2010

Griffy and His Plight

On Saturdays for the last four years, Griffy has been dutifully serving as the official greeter at the Annandale Pet Spa, on John Marr Drive. Yep, those of you that take your canine and feline companions to the Spa on Saturdays -- that happy, friendly little guy that can often be seen sitting right on the counter is the one that is now lost. His whereabouts have been unknown since the car he was riding in was sideswiped, late in the evening of Friday, January 22nd. He vanished into thin air when his mom was talking to the person that pulled out in front of her when there was little room on the road to avoid him.

Trying not to picture him cold, hungry, alone and confused, Gail would set out every day, for nine straight days following the accident, trying to find him and to spread the word in the area that anyone seeing a scruffy little 18 lb ragamuffin should call her immediately. She's been finding that many of her fliers are being torn down soon after she puts them up. We need to find new ways to spread the word if fliers in the immediate area aren't going to work.

Can you do anything to help Annandale learn about Griffy and his plight? As far as we know and until we learn otherwise, we assume that he could be still somewhere nearby -- hiding in woods, in bushes and under decks, not wanting to ask for help, and in his confusion and his little doggie mind, assuming that people he sees that are not his mom must not be able to help him him find her. His collar and ID tags were secure at the time that he disappeared, so we expect he still has them. We think that the reason no one has called to say they have seen him is not because they haven't, but because they don't know who to call. Using the "six degrees" theory, can you push the word out to enough people that you know that live, work or travel in Annandale -- or further out than that -- that it will reach people that are seeing him somewhere?

Sunday, January 31, 2010

A few pictures of Griffy

We are still looking for more pictures of Griffy, and here's what Gail has turned up so far: