Potential Sighting - Near Poe Middle School

Three of the last four weeks, sighting calls have come in for Griffy, and it's great to see that people still have their eyes open. But in each case, we were able to rule them out before we could even get the blog updated.

Yesterday, a sighting call came in that we can't rule out. Hopefully, this will prove to be Griffy, and he will be reunited with Gail soon. Keep your fingers crossed, and also keep your eyes open in particular if you are in the general area of Poe Middle School. It's off Backlick Road, between Little River Turnpike and Braddock Road. He, or an at large dog resembling him if it wasn't him, was seen in that area on Monday, April 26th. We want to get that area canvassed, cards handed out, and fliers posted. Any way you can help spread the word is appreciated.

Here's a map of the track that was run from the sighting location:

A Generous Offer of Help From A Kind Stranger

This past weekend, a kind benefactor -- unknown to Gail or anyone else involved in the search for Griffy -- has stepped forward to offer to fund a thousand dollar reward for Griffy's safe return. This is great news that just may make the difference, and help bring Griffy home. Knowing that another dog who has been missing for a year in the Prince Georges County area came home this past weekend thanks to a large reward, this generous offer brings new hope.

If there's one best way to really spread the word of a lost dog to as many homes as possible, it is and has always been by way of the media. But it's hard to compete for a piece of that pie, what with plenty of other dogs lost at any given time. Gail's immediate response has been to begin reaching out to the media, knowing that the kindness of this stranger is something that TV news viewers and newspaper readers want to read about. As of this update, she has connected with channels 5 and 9, and hopefully her channel 4 contact (who covered Griffy's story during the snowstorm in February) will be able to help her, too. But channel 7 has been elusive! Do you have any contacts at WJLA, channel 7 news that you can put Gail in touch with? If Griffy's story can get airtime and printspace in enough/every media outlet in the area, that should go a very long way towards pushing the word all the way to someone that may have taken Griffy in, and not know how to find his owner.

Please speak up if you know anyone that can help get Griffy's story, and that of the kindness of strangers, on any TV news program and/or in any newspaper.

Status of the Search for Griffy

While the hope that Griffy will be found is still intact, the kind of hopeful optimism and enthusiasm that is needed to keep the search active and working on a daily basis has faded with the passage of time since the last sighting. If you've ever lost a pet that stayed missing for weeks or months, you probably know how hard it is to continue searching when there have been no sightings for weeks.

Also at play for Gail (Griffy's mom) are a couple of other priorities that were not issues for the first couple of months of the search. So, even if it weren't so hard for her to keep her spirits up, there is less time to now that she is able to devote each day to the search for Griffy. Here are words of appreciation expressed by Gail on the Find Griffy Facebook Group, on April 1st:

"I just wanted to thank all of the volunteers who have cared, supported and aided me in the search for Griffy. You are all very special people. I will be forever greatful. I know in my heart we have done everything possible to find him and bring him home. Please keep my little guy in your mind and heart. Maybe... someday he and I will be reunited,then my heart/soul will be whole once again. Griffy I will always love you. To whoever has my fuzzy son--PLEASE love and take excellant care of him. If you do have a conscience and you have a change of heart deciding to return Griffy to me, I will be greatful and never ask any questions. Remember- there is a sizeable reward for Griffy's return."

Many of the volunteers that were able to assist with the search in various ways (including fliering and other outreach activities) during February and March are still available to respond to sightings if there are any.

Any help -- of any kind -- that is offered by readers of this blog is appreciated; just contact Gail directly.

If there are any more sightings, and certainly if Griffy is found, this blog will be updated right away.

Still Looking For Griffy

Friday marked nine weeks since Griffy went missing - the longest nine weeks ever. I know that lots of dogs have gone missing for longer than that and still made their way home, but it sure is hard to get through the days wondering where he is, what he's thinking, where he's sleeping, what he's eating, and just when he'll get back home.

For most of the time he's been gone, we've tried to spread the word all over Annandale, and now we are trying to take the message further out - in all directions. Please tell anyone you know to be on the looking for Griffy; telling only the people that live, work and travel through Annandale won't do any more. Everyone in Northern Virginia -- and beyond -- needs to know: if they see a dog that looks anything at all like Griffy, whether he's walking around or being walked by someone, please, please call the number at the top of this page.

This Past Week

Several calls came in over the week and were investigated, and in each case, they were found to be other dogs. In a couple of cases, dogs that are not Griffy were seen in areas of past sightings, which would lead us to wonder about past sightings -- if they were Griffy -- had it not been for Sam and Salsa coming in, in each case, to verify the sightings. Salsa does keep picking up Griffy's scent, and the aimless wandering around that he has been doing does go along with what you can read about Brussels Griffons on breed websites.

So where is Griffy now, then? There hasn't been a sighting in longer, now, than the previous lengths of time between sightings, which were already at 7 & 8 days apart.

A lot of fliering has been done, many of which remain, and then a lot of fliers have been removed. A call even came in from someone who is unhappy, shall we say, about all the fliers. That'll sure make you hesitate to "finish" or continue the fliering.

VDOT and the shelters are being checked, as is Craigslist, Petfinder, FidoFinder and other websites. We've checked with animal control not just about dogs that have made their way into the shelter, but even just calls they've received of "stray" dogs that they haven't captured.There hasn't been anything encouraging to report since last weekend.

So, we are at a crossroads and are looking for brand new ideas.

The Sunday Track of Griffy's Scent

The map of the Sunday evening track is below, and here's what Sam had to say about the track run on Sunday evening:

The track we ran last night leads us to the unbelievable conclusion that all of the sighting locations are connected by a central "grand circuit" that he does, or at least has done more than once, like tiny petals on a giant sunflower center. The fact that so small a dog can cover so much territory is amazing but it does make a lot more sense to me about the far removed sighting locations. I was shocked when we found scent at each of those locations and now I understand how he gets there and that he manages to keep coming back to the neighborhood near the Honey Pig. Although we did not go to that particular parking lot last night we did go through KMart and the little center where his groomer is before heading back down to Braddock Rd via Backlick Rd.

Interesting, when we finally got the idea to look up the description of the Brussels Griffon breed today, this is what was said:

"Griffons lack a homing instinct and because of their sense of self importance may take off to see the world when the opportunity presents itself. A safely fenced yard and no opened doors are a necessity. Griffons are not like other dogs. They are affectionately known as Velcro dogs because they attach themselves to one person in the family, sometimes two, and need to be with that person 24/7. They want to sleep in bed with you. They follow you from room to room and are never more than 2-3' from you. If you are standing at the sink, you may find your Griff sitting on your feet. When you sit down, your Griff will be in your lap."

More Tracking

Since Thursday evening's track, which followed a sighting off Edsall Road, was interrupted, we wanted to "finish" it. So on Saturday early evening, Sam came back out with Salsa and started in the same place where they left off.

Most of the tracks we run of Griffy's scent wind up as loops; this one didin't. This one brought him back to Little River Turnpike and streets off of it. The map of this track is below. The track ended at the Annandale United Methodist Church Cemetery, and it was believed that he was there Saturday, some hours before the track. Then this evening, Sunday March 7th, Sam and Salsa came back out and continued the track, starting at the cemetery. Tonight's track showed him again crossing over Little River Turnpike and using main roads like Backlick and Braddock -- even walking directly in front of the Giant, which HAD to be overnight. This evening's track ended on Little River Turnpike, with everyone on the track, including Salsa, being too exhausted to go on. Tonight's track map will be posted when it is available.

We are now processing this information, and trying to come up with a plan.

March 4th Track Map & Its Continuation

The track started around 9pm on Clifton St near Edsall Rd. It looped a few times there on the south side of Edsall Rd before crossing over. The track needed to end and should be continued on Saturday.

Update late Saturday: details of Saturday evening's continuation track will follow on Sunday, but Griffy didn't stay in the Edsall Rd area long. He went back to Little River Turnpike and meandered around there, on the north side of it. In the end, when the track had to end because Sam and Gail were exhausted, they were at the Annandale United Methodist Church Cemetery, and it seems that Griffy spent time there. More later, along with the map.

New Sighting - Hot!

Not much in the way of details yet but it's off of Edsall Road, so he crossed Braddock -- if this is him. Check back for details!

Update: this sighting was investigated by both Gail (Griffy's mom) and Donna (one of the volunteers). After initial canvassing made it appear that the caller was seeing a neighborhood dog named JJ, it now looks like both JJ and Griffy were out and about in the neighborhood mid-day today. Someone in the neighborhood who knows JJ and looked at a picture of Griffy stated that she too, like the caller, saw a dog that looks just like Griffy roaming around earlier today -- with JJ. We still need to reach JJ's people to talk to them, and so hopefully more information will be available later. We are trying to reach Sam to get her and Salsa out to verify this sighting.

Assuming we can do this, and that Salsa tells us it was Griffy that was seen in this neighborhood, we need to re-think weekend plans for outreach. This would have us trying to reach a new population, and maybe with different methods from what we were doing before.

Stay tuned!

Update at midnight: So, it was Griffy that the caller, David, saw off Edsall Rd. David remembered seeing a flier at a deli, when he saw Griffy, and he called the deli and asked them to look on the flier to give him the number to call in the sighting. Pretty cool, David -- so glad you are so resourceful. Am too tired to relay the details of the track at the moment, but it does look like Griffy milled about in one neighborhood on one side of Edsall Rd, then crossed Edsall and milled about in another neighborhood. And we had to call the track before the scent ran out; the plan is to try picking it back up Saturday. I'm hoping for another sighting before that, but we need fliers out at the new area off Edsall Rd, between Braddock & 395, if we're going to get many calls.

It's Wednesday, There Should Have Been A Sighting

The last two Wednesdays, Griffy sighting calls came in. So we spent all day hoping the phone would ring again today, with a sighting call. There's now less than an hour left of Wednesday, so that's not much time.

We are getting tired of our fliers not resulting in Griffy sighting calls, so we are trying some new activities this weekend to spread the word about Griffy. Can you join us for something fun? Send an email if you can get together with a group of us in a creative effort to tell Annandale about Griffy.

Griffy Is Still Lost, Still Being Sought!

As of Friday night, it had been five weeks since the accident from which Griffy ran. That's a lllloooonnnngggg time for the little guy's family to be without him and not knowing where he is, and at times, if he even survived the snow storms or the traffic or whatever else is out there.

Sightings since the snow storms, and resulting tracks in which a trained tracking dog has picked up and followed Griffy's scent, tell us that he is alive and relatively well, moving around and even running. We hope his running is not in true terror, but just a reaction to someone seeing him and calling out to him, since he right now may see pursuers as predators.

From the information we've gotten, we know that Griffy -- who started out his journey between Little River Turnpike and Braddock Road (in Annandale VA), has crossed over to the other side of both of those busy roads, and back. He started out just east of Heritage, and he has traveled well east of Backlick. Through it all, he's held on to his collar and tags, but he has now missed two haircuts (he is normally cut monthly, and was due for a cut the day after he went missing.) He's missed five baths now, and we're guessing he'll be looking rough and matted when he's finally found.

Griffy's famly doesn't have many pictures of him, and we are now using a picture of another Brussels Griffon in a sign that will be displayed on Little River Turnpike today. We need to reach people that are seeing Griffy and can report where they've seen him. We need to go get him, and take him home.

Map of Wednesday's Track

The map of the track from Wednesday is available now, and it covers much more territory than I thought. (It is generated via Salsa, the tracking dog, wearing a GPS collar, or maybe Sam wears a GPS watch -- something like that -- so it's only misprepresentative of the track if Sam forgets to turn it off when the track is over.)

So I think we need to do more than a token amount of outreach in North Springfield. Processing this . . .

Through Thursday

Well, no real activity Thursday, following the Wednesday sighting and the preparations for Griffy to come through the area. No food at the feeding station with the camera positioned on it, though some food was gone from the one closer to the street.

If all of the Griffy sightings and what we know of his travels from the scent trails followed by tracking dogs (LJT Pet Tracking and Pure Gold Pet Trackers) were all compressed into a shorter time period, we could say that Griffy's pattern is to do loops that are like petals in a daisy. He does seem to loop, some larger and some smaller, but he doesn't do the same loop over and over.  However, don't forget how much time is passing between sightings. We DON'T know Griffy's pattern, and CAN'T determine it unless we start getting more sightings that show us where he is more of the time -- like every day, preferably! All that the sightings we have gotten are telling us is that he survived the snow storms and any other threats to his safety, and he's traveling. They aren't telling us where to go to jump ahead of him and put a trap in his path.

A lot of good outreach has already taken place in all of the areas Griffy has been sighted, but of course no amount is really ever enough. Anyone that can participate this weekend in any type of outreach for Griffy, please send an email or leave a comment (which does send an email). Here's what we're looking for people to do:
 -- post fliers
 -- pass out biz cards
 -- produce supplies of above mentioned fliers & biz cards for pickup by a volunteer
 -- participate in intersection alerts along 236
 -- if you can $pon$or a postcard mailing, we can do a cheaper homegrown version of what's described HERE
 -- anything else you can think of!

As always, we need as many people involved as we can get, and as much as possible, we want to pair people up to work together whenever volunteers are available. Thanks in advance for your help bringing Griffy home!

New Sighting - a Few Hours Ago

Not much in the way of details yet, but a sighting was called in this morning and Gail plus two other volunteers responded immediately. They didn't see Griffy, although the sighting was fairly hot, but they did get the area fliered. Sam & Salsa are on their way to verify the sighting. As more details are available, they will be posted here. Check back!

3:25pm - a report from the track has Salsa pulling Sam a breakneck speed. See the map, linked at right, for the track so far.

10:35pm - I don't have the exact track to post yet; hopefully Sam will be able to send the map before long. But the gist of it is that Griffy did several loops in a rather small, tight area, south of where he went missing almost five weeks ago. This different from the February 4th track that showed him looping but the loop was large. And a week ago, he did a loop, north of Little River Turnpike, that was much larger than this loop. Interestingly, he walked right in front of his paternal grandparents house; too bad he didn't know to just plop down on the stoop where his dad would have easily found him just a little while later!

So here's the response to the sighting and track -- one and only one feeding and scent station was set up at the grandparents' house, and a camera has been set up to hopefully show us Griffy eating from it. We can always hope!

Plans for Monday

So remember that last Wednesday's track of Griffy's scent ended at the door of the nature center building, and we were able to reach out, indirectly if not directly, to the people that had been there in the last hours before the track. And no one saw anything. Our response, then, has been to keep spreading the word and to also try to consider other possibilities as to why the scent trail ended there if no one picked him up. Sam and Laura discussed it, and hypothesized (or really just questioned each other, I think) could the door being opened have pulled some scent back to that front door area -- such as a scent that lead away from it? In the end, we don't know, but we've had to just go on the assumption that Griffy is still "out there" and still needs all the help possible to get back home.

A couple of the volunteers found an area on the nature center property that has what could be considered some shelter for an animal of Griffy's size, and there are paw prints and some evidence of digging in the snow, to the point at which even some mulch and leaves were dug up. Ruling out animals too small such as squirrels and chipmunks, and animals that are just unlikely to dig such as raccoons, we are looking at the possibility that Griffy has been spending some time on the grounds of the center. With that that in mind, Gail and another volunteer are going to the Nature Center today to meet with the people there. Hopefully those discussions will lead to a plan that will help us find Griffy there, at the nature center.

Update & Status Saturday Night

The last several days have had us posting fliers on the north side of 236, and by now we have covered a lot of the area we want covered. We are sad that calls are not coming in yet, but we know that they may start coming in at any time.

Update & Status Thursday Morning

So far this morning we have only this update from Donna:  I spoke this morning with Todd Brown who is the operations manager at the Hidden Oaks Nature Center. He is calling the staff now (via cell phones) to see if anyone knows anything about what happened to Griffy yesterday. He will call me back once he's talked to all of the staff members that worked there yesterday.

Waiting!

10:50am update from Donna:

Okay - this is what we know so far. None of the staff (which we think is only 2-3 people) know anything about Griffy. They didn't see him yesterday much less catch him. The nature center did have a class though that was open to the public between 4-5pm last night. We are waiting to talk to the manager (who is available at 1pm today) to see if we can get the list (phone numbers and email addresses) of the folks who attended the class. I can't imagine it's a long list - likely only 5-6 people.

In the meantime, I think we need to proceed with the assumption that Griffy is still alive, well and traveling in the area between Little River Turnpike/Hummer Road/Gallows Road and the beltway. This is the area in which the track ran last night AND the same location (Fenton Road) that the mailman told me he saw Griffy last week between the two snow storms. This area has not been well fliered (except for the ones Nadene and Terri posted last night) nor has it been canvassed.

Gail is out there now and I have asked her to spend the next few hours driving/walking the track and talking to anyone she sees. I think if we concentrate on this location, as well as follow up with the people who left the nature center around 5pm and could have potentially picked up Griffy on their way out, we'll have our bases covered. I am going to post to CL right now with some of this info to try to spur more info from people who may have been in the area.

Does anyone have availability tonight, tomorrow or tomorrow night to flier and/or canvass ? I will also be calling Sam this morning to fill her in and ask for her advice as to feeding station location in light of the fact that Griffy hasn't yet been linked to someone at the nature center.

Update as of 3:30: The people at the Nature Center are reaching out to the people that were in the class from 4 to 4:55pm yesterday, which is four families, by email or phone or whatever way they can be reached, and we are awaiting word on that. Then we also found out that there was another college class that was held at the center from 5pm to 8pm last night, and the instructor is being contacted to see what he or she can do to contact all of the students in that class. So right now, there are around a couple of dozen people that could potentially have information about Griffy being at the Hidden Oaks Nature Center prior to when Sam & Salsa tracked Griffy's scent there, which was I think around 8:30pm last night.

Meanwhile, Gail has been out hitting the pavement today, and she has talked to and given business cards to a ton of people moving throughout the area. We are still trying to get more people to go out this evening and do more of the same.

Griffy's Scent Tracked Tonight

Thanks to Alex, who called in a very hot sighting about mid-day today, Sam & Salsa of Pure Gold Pet Trackers came out to track Griffy's movements tonight -- about 7 hours behind him. Salsa picked up Griffy's scent right away, and basicaly pulled Sam along as she tracked for over an hour and a half. You can see the map of the track linked from the menu at right, or just click --> HERE.

As I'm writing this update, we are at a crossroads -- because the scent trail ended at the front door of the Hidden Oaks Nature Center, where Salsa sat down and barked.

Here is Sam's map of the track:

Sightings - Today and Last Week

A call came in today from someone that saw a dog that might be Griffy on Hummer Road this morning, and moments after he saw the dog, he pulled in to a 7-11 where there was a flier.

While our volunteer responded to the sighting and spoke with a mail carrier, showing him Griffy's flier, he (pretty casually!) responded that he had seen that dog -- one day between the two snowstorms! Where he saw him was along Fenton, which is a street at the end of Trammel, which connects Fenton and Hummer.

So if this is Griffy, this puts him on the opposite side of Little River Turnpike from where he went missing. We already knew he's crossed LRT from the Feb 4th track, but the area where the track showed him going, on the opposite side of LRT from his starting point and his home, is east of here. This means he's covering a lot of ground.

We need to have this sighting verified, and we have made arrangments for Sam & Salsa to again come to Annandale following another track they are doing today. (Again, like the last time, they are tracking for Sweetie before coming to track for Griffy.) Arrangments have been made and Sam & Salsa will arrive as soon as they can, but right now, we don't know how they will get paid! If you can make a contribution, please click on the ChipIn hyperlink at right, and thank you so much in advance for that!

Check back later this evening for results of the track!! I can already tell you that we are most likely going to need some fliering in that swath between Humman and the beltway. Can you download the flier and business cards and be ready to start fliering? Tonight or tomorrow? The weekend?? Leave a comment if you can help!

Monday Status and Update

The work to spread the word about Griffy continued Sunday, with more people out and about in Annandale being told about him, and handed a business card, some by Gail. I know that this is hard on Gail, talking about her lost dog and pleading for people to help by spreading the word. It's necessary, though, and she and the small number of volunteers can't reach everyone. So hopefully if you are reading this page, you are telling others too, to be on the lookout for Griffy.

With word of Griffy being spread out like we've been able to start doing since the snowfall finally stopped, we are looking for sightings, and so far just one has come in, which turned out to be another dog. Even if you are not sure that the dog you see is Griffy, if you aren't sure one way or another, please do call Gail as soon after you see the dog as you can. If you are able to take a picture, all the better.

For anyone reading this page that is unfamiliar with how a tracking dog works, read the recent Wsahington Post article about Sam & Salsa with Pure Gold Pet trackers by clicing  HERE. The artcle doesn't mention Griffy by name, but does mention the track that Sam & Salsa recently ran on him, very briefly.

Meanwhile, if you are on Twitter, please tweet about Griffy. If you are on Facebook, please post Griffy's blog (http://findgriffy.blogspot.com/) on your wall. If there are bulletin boards you read or listservs you are a member of, those are good ways to pass it around. Email the blog to your friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, former co-workers -- anyone. Print out the business cards or fliers (see the Links menu at right) and make hard copies available to anyone you can. These are all ways that you can make a difference -- hopefully THE difference we are looking for!