NOTE: Since this is a blog, chapters will appear in reverse order. This is part 4. Photos are of Salsa and of Salsa and Sam tracking Gigi.
Our first impulse when Gigi ran away was to search frantically ourselves. This was unproductive. Possessed by love and consumed by fear, you feel compelled to get out and save your baby!
What we needed to do was identify where she was (our sightings were a great start), get flyers posted throughout our neighborhood, and get the word out online--this blog, Facebook, Twitter, lost dog sights (Petfinders, Pets 911, Craigslist [under both DC Lost & Found and Pets categories], and community forums. Online resources are quicker to implement these days. That way, you have hundreds perhaps thousands of eyes looking for your pet.
At this point we had two sightings--44th and Garrison and 44th and Van Ness. We needed more information. That is why Jim met Sam Connelly of Pure Gold Pet Trackers at 5:30 PM on Thursday to see if they could sniff Gigi out (for our account of how we connected, see blog Part 3).
Before we describe the great trek, let us describe one other step we took. Nancy was told about Find Toto by Mary Rowse. This service can make robo-calls (automated voice messages to land lines like you get from candidates during campaign season) to an area around any address--in our case, our home's. For $300, we paid for 2,500 calls. Subsequently, our flyering team heard repeatedly (and we heard from neighbors) that they had received and remembered the calls. In the space of days, we encountered folks who had received a call, an e-mail and had seen our flyers. Jim has a background in advertising, and it is well-known that repeated instances of one person receiving the same message multiple times (ad guys call it frequency) make it more effective. This is not an endorsement of Find Toto, but we don't feel we wasted money. We do think flyering is the most critical task--once you know where to poster, which brings us back to the Great AU Park Trek.
Jim met Sam Connelly and her tracking dog Salsa (see the You Tube video of Sam and Salsa in action by clicking here) at 44th and Van Ness. We brought a dog Snuggie that Gigi had been wrapped in as the scent item. Salsa is an eight-year old Golden Retriever, and phenomenally sweet and talented. She immediately picked up the scent in a pile of snow and ice. The she was off, with Sam following, holding Salsa's lead, followed by me and a documentarian who is working on a special TV show on scent dogs for the National Geographic channel. For a map of our track, click here.
Here's what I wrote that night:
I just got back from a 4-plus mile trek, as Sam and her scent dog Salsa (a golden) tracked Gigi's route from the sighting at 1:30 AM this morning. She has established a circuit that is primarily in AU Park, but Gigi crossed Massachusetts into Spring Valley and back, up Mass Ave to the circle, down Nebraska Avenue to Wisconsin, then back into Tenleytown, across River to 44th and Harrison where she was seen Tuesday night, up to Western, west on western to River (again) and across River yet again. We gave up the track one block from our home (what a heartbreaker).
There was much I didn't write, partly because I was exhausted and heartsick. As I saw that Gigi had crossed Massachusetts and River and walked along Mass, Nebraska, River, Western and Wisconsin (all very busy streets--though Gigi was probably doing this after midnight), I couldn't believe she hadn't been or wouldn't be killed by a car. The map doesn't convey the panic she must have felt that was clear from following her track. When she reached Wisconsin Avenue at Tenley Circle, she was clearly confused. She clearly rested awhile in a recess in front of some doors at St. Anne's Church. She repeatedly sought protection under a row of yew shrubs. Then she ran back and forth and in circles by the playground in front of the school on the church property, which may have reminded her of a playground near her foster home in Charlottesville. (It is ironic that Jim works for KaBOOM!, the national non-profit that builds playgrounds for children in need across North America.) She then turned back and went down far less busy streets, only to walk down River and Western. I quite frankly was in despair. Remember, the snow was deep and it was bitter cold.
When I began the track with Sam and Salsa, I naively assumed we might actually find Gigi. I had visions in my head of coming upon her and grabbing her up in my arms. This rarely happens--unless the dog is dead or injured. The purpose is to define the territory the dog is wandering in. When we stopped, Sam advised me would find out nothing more that night. And we are armed with the critical information we needed for the next step in operation "Gigi's hope"--flyering. Getting ready for that would consume our next day--Friday.
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