Prep, focus, and access--Friday, February 19

NOTE: Since this is a blog, chapters will appear in reverse order. This is part 5. Arrow on satellite photo points to Swedish residence. You can get a sense of the size of the "backyard." The large building to the right is the Japanese compound. Also included is a photo taken by Eva Hafstrom of Gigi poised to enter the Japanese property.

Nancy had to work Friday, and Jim worked half a day. In the afternoon, he printed Gigi flyers, bought plastic sleeves to put them in, prepared directions for volunteers, and bought stuff (staplers, push pins, duct tape, clear tape) to fasten them to poles, stop signs, and random other public objects. Later that night, we stuffed flyers in plastic sleeves, confirmed volunteers, and Nancy printed a map of the AU Park area, divided into 24 areas, and highlighted those. So when each team arrived on Saturday, they would have a specific assigned area and almost everything they would need. It is critical to assign areas, so folks don't duplicate efforts.

At 10:30 PM, we received a call from Larry Miller, who was walking his Labradoodle Chloe. He was at the corner of Van Ness and 44th--the exact place Gigi was seen two nights earlier. She was headed south on 44th, and ran across Van Ness. She narrowly escaped being hit by a car, and darted through the same fence, into the property of the Swedish Ambassadorial Residence.

Since we had known that she was spending time there (and we believed in the adjacent Japanese property), Nancy had called both the Japanese and Swedish Embassies, to see if we could get access to both properties. The Swedish Embassy quickly provided us with Eva Hafstrom's personal cell number. Nancy left a message, and Mrs. Hafstrom (who told us to call her Eva), said to just call whenever we needed access. The Japanese staff were polite to Nancy, but made it clear that we would not be allowed on the property. Although we were not surprised, we thought it a little ironic since we both lived in Japan, Jim has Japanese relatives, and Nancy speaks Japanese. But let us say right away, that Eva soon called Yoriko Fujisaki, the Ambassador's wife, who alerted her staff, so that no one would inadvertently scare Gigi off. The Amabssador and his wife have a dearly loved black labrador named Skipper. Skipper receives prominent mention in the offical biography of the Ambassador and his own story is fascinating. We really knew we were in the nation's capital, and Gigi had discovered one of the largest, safest and most beautiful parcels of land in city.

Everything was now ready for the what turned out to be seven days of knowing where Gigi was, but not being able to get her. We called it the Big Wait.