Meanwhile, back at Gigi HQ--our home

NOTE: Since this is blog, chapters will appear in reverse order. This is part 3.

On Wednesday, February 17, twelve hours before Kelly spotted Gigi at 1:30 AM the next morning, Nancy launched the first version of this blog. We did so as the result of great advice from Northern Virginia Sheltie Rescue, Danny Finkelstein of Lucky Dog Animal Rescue, and Mary Rowse.

They let us know what a critical role such blog sites can play in finding a lost pet. Danny quickly became our Gigi IT department. Nancy set it up using blogspot (which is easy), having had no prior experience. The online team at national non-profit KaBOOM! report to Jim, but he had no hands-on experience. His staff also assisted our efforts. The blog design was improved by Nancy Despeaux a few days later.

While Nancy Hunn was getting the word out on list serves, launching our blog, calling several embassies in the vicinities (more on that in the next post), and recruiting the help of a dog tracker, Jim printed flyers (designed and e-mailed by Gigi's foster mom, Nancy Tisdale in Charlottesville) and began posting in the two areas where she was sighted. So, a word to the wise -- be sure to have photos of your dog on hand; we didn't have them since Gigi had only been with us three days. I did this fliering on my own, and realized that it is a job that demands more help. Once person just cannot cover enough territory. More about how to organize a campaign to post flyers in another chapter.

As time was of the essence and Nancy had chatted with Mary Rowse, who had been involved with Baxter's rescue the week before, Mary advised that we call Sam Connelly of Pure Gold Pet Trackers to get Gigi's circuit in Northwest DC. Luckily Sam and Nancy H. were able to speak about the incident, and Sam agreed that she would bring Salsa, her scent dog, to Washington, to track Gigi's circuit.