Another Sighting - Need Outreach and Weekend Help

Yesterday I went out with Sam and her dog Salsa again to try to find Olivia's scent in her (now 3rd) new neighborhood. Unfortunately, the information we had from the sighting wasn't specific enough to give us a particular place to start. Without that to focus her, Salsa decided to turn her attention to hunting squirrels instead. It was pretty frustrating because I knew she had been around there somewhere but, because we didn't know exactly where, we couldn't search anywhere. (Salsa may be a great tracking dog, but she's still a dog, and there were tons and tons of squirrels!) We may have found Olivia's scent at some point, but we couldn't tell the difference between excitement from that and frenzy over the millions of squirrels running around, so it was basically a waste.

When that didn't work, we drove around putting up posters at major intersections in the area. We were starting to do smaller intersections when I ran into some people hanging out outside a building and asked them to watch out for Olivia. Much to my delight, one of them said, "I saw that dog yesterday." I asked her several specific questions to get the information we would need to track her from there or at least put up a feeding station:
What day and time had she seen her?
Where - On which corner of that intersection?
What was she doing?
Did you see her leave? Which way did she go?
The more information we can get from each sighting, the closer we'll be to finding her.

This time, I was even more encouraged, partly because it confirmed the earlier sighting, but mostly because it gave me much more specific information. That was where my luck ended, however, because it was way too late to start tracking then, so it was a waste of a trip for Sam (and a waste of the time and money for me). Speaking of money, I have been meaning to start fundraising to finance this search. When I offered to foster Olivia, I made sure that the rescue would cover all of her medical costs because, though I have the time and ability to foster, that's partly because I am unemployed, which keeps me from being able to pay for all aspects of her care. I didn't want to be an irresponsible foster-mama and take her on when I couldn't provide what she needed, but I thought as long as her medical costs were covered, I could provide her basic food and other everyday expenses. I did not think to ask who would pay for dog-search costs if she ran away - I have never lost a dog before, so it didn't even occur to me, nor did I know how incredibly expensive it could be.

Now, several hundred dollars later (with no end in sight!), I am essentially on my own. Unfortunately for me, her rescue is not helping at all (though the other day they did send a helpful suggestion that I put up fliers). Anyway, I am sorry to have to say this, but I do not have any more money to spend (much less to spend on Olivia's search), so I need to find outside funding. Does anyone have any experience fundraising? (I have exactly none.) Is lost-dog-searching in the budget for any rescue that might be willing to help out? Do you have any other ideas for how I can pay for this? I would hate to have to forgo further efforts that might help her and have her suffer just because she drew the unlucky foster parent who couldn't afford a more extensive search.

Here comes my usual plea: please help put up posters and hand out business cards in her new area (basically SW, south of the Southwest Freeway and west of South Capitol Street). I know (and thank you to the) many of you have already put up lots of posters (as have I), but unfortunately, she keeps moving, so now we have to put more somewhere else. I have loads of posters and business cards; I just need help distributing them. I am going to put more posters today (and also Sonia is going to help me put up feeding stations), and I will try to spend some time handing out business cards at the Waterfront Metro stop, but I can only do so much.

Finally, I have to leave town tomorrow for a week. (!) I hate to go while Olivia is still out there, but I planned this trip to visit my family for Thanksgiving long before I even knew about Olivia and I don't think I can cancel now. This means, however, that I will need people here to cover for me in case of a sighting or (if we're super-lucky) someone has her and we could go pick her up. I will still be on-call 24/7 - it is my phone that's on every flyer and business card - but is there someone here whom I could call if I need something in DC while I'm gone? It may end up being no work at all; I just don't know. Is anyone going to be around over the holiday weekend who wouldn't mind going to look for her / set up a feeding station if someone sees her or to get her if someone has her? If so, please let me know. As usual, it would not need to be for the whole time - I could divide up the weekend by days or even parts of days if necessary. Anyway, please email me if you can do this.

Thank you for hanging in there with me (/Olivia) and continuing to help and care!