Belated Thanksgiving for Olivia - An Anniversary Sighting!

Good news, bad news. The bad news: it's been a year since Olivia ran away. Good news - actually, great news: we got a report of a new sighting indicating that Olivia is alive and well!

The sighting is quite credible: the location of the sighting was one of Livvie's favorite spots, Marion Park in SE DC. This is where the very first sighting took place and where the last track ended. The sight-er reported that she was playing with another dog but, when the other dog's human tried to approach, she ran away. Still, not only is she alive and ok, she was playing with another dog! This made my day/week/month and I counted it among my most joyful blessings at Thanksgiving. (This post is a belated report of the sighting because I was out of town for several weeks due to a sudden death in the family.)

We decided not to track from it because it is already central in the area we know she wanders. What we did instead was canvass all of the houses that border the park, handing out flyers and business cards and asking them to watch out for her in and around the park. The neighbors were very receptive, so we are hoping this will generate another sighting.

Livvie's Lying Low...

Hello, everyone. I'm sorry to report that no one has seen Olivia for a while or, more accurately, no one has seen Olivia and reported it to us for a while. Despite this frustrating lull, I am putting up a new post for two reasons.

1. Flyers, flyers, and more flyers. And then some business cards. The best way to generate reports of a sighting is to get and keep flyers up all over her area and to hand out business cards and talk to people around there. I printed up a couple hundred more and assembled them by putting them into plastic sheet covers, stapling them in, and backing them with little wooden skewers so they'll stay flat. Unfortunately, the magnitude of the task is so great that I am not even close to being able to keep up. Her area is so large and I am so car-less (to say nothing of the 50-60 hour work-week) that I have fallen way behind. Consider this a desperate plea for help! Please let me know if there is anything you can do to help, whether by putting flyers up yourself, driving me around to do it, or (best of all) by handing out business cards and talking to people.

2. Even though Olivia has made herself scarce lately, there is cause for hope on several other fronts. Olivia's (as-yet-unmet) friend and fellow lost dog Sassafras has shown herself several times lately, definitely this month and maybe as recently as last week. (More on that at her blog: findlostbeaglesassafras.blogspot.com) Also, just yesterday, I got word of a dog who was lost in a serious car accident. When I called to offer to help, however, her daddy gave me the excellent news that she had gone into a crate they put out for her near the accident site and now she is home safe and sound. One more thing: a not-so-near miss, but it's still better than nothing. Montgomery county shelter got a female brindle mastiff in, but it's not Olivia because it listed her as "unaltered" and it's not Bogey because the tail is not cropped. These don't actually help Olivia, but they do let me know that at least some good things are happening.

This is enough activity to keep me from total despondency and, more importantly, my desire and hope to get Olivia home is still plenty strong enough to keep me going. As ever, I appreciate all the help you have already given and any more you can offer!

New Sighting and Confirmed Track -- Go Livvy!!!!

New confirmed sighting!!!!! On July 30, we received a call from a kid who thinks he saw olivia running through his yard the day before. He lives only 6 or 7 blocks from the point where the Capitol Police lost sight of Olivia originally.

We can happily follow the news of the sighting with more good news: the sighting was valid; we were able to track from it; and the track area shows that she's basically still circling the area we already knew (though this does widen the circle).

The only problem with this is that it creates more work to do. Given the wider circle, though, we need to put up new flyers, and we need to refresh and replace many of the flyers we put up before. We also think it's time to do another round of emails with flyers to vets and other doggy-businesses, as well as posts to the neighborhood blogs and listservs in Olivia's chosen area. Also, we now have the camera up at the feeding station, so we need to keep replenishing the food and checking the camera daily.

If you can help at all -- either with checking the feeding station near Eastern Market, with fliering, or with anything else, please contact Laura using the information to the right of the blog.

Thanks so much in advance for your help and for all our volunteers who have already been so great over the past year!

*** Request for Volunteers ***

We have a new feeding station set up near Olivia's latest confirmed track and need to recruit some more volunteers to monitor it. We have a schedule set up; you can sign up for once a week, or more or less, as your schedule permits. Interested? Email Beth at riguski@gmail.com and I'll send you the sign-up sheet and walk you through what you need to do. Thanks so much! Let's bring this girl home!!

*** Brand New May Sighting of Olivia ***

Laura passed along the wonderful news to us that Olivia showed her sweet self last night! Hallelujah!

A woman who had seen the posters (yay flyer-ers!) was driving down (or up) 10th street southeast. Ahe and her husband stopped on the 700-block and got out of the car, and she thinks she saw olivia then. It was 10:30 at night, so it was dark and she didn't get a very good look at the dog, so she said she couldn't say for sure whether it was olivia. I told her not to worry about that - Our tracker dog, Salsa, will be sure one way or the other. Anyway, Olivia was just "trotting along" (true to form, according to the other sightings!) down the street, doing her thing. Also consistent with the descriptions in other sightings, Olivia crossed the street to avoid the woman and her husband. Another advantage of that is that, if it was Olivia, her scent will be on both sides of the street, so we won't need an exact point at which to start the track.

A track is tentatively planned for today (Saturday). Keep your fingers crossed!

We'll be sure to keep everyone posted and, as always, if you're available at all to help, please let us know via the contact information at right.

Olivia's Latest Tracked Route (As of 4-6-2011)

Sam and Salsa were able to do another recent track for us based on the sighting that we had a few days ago. I'm attaching that track now and, above it, a graphic that shows the track overlaid with all previous tracks. The good news is that, at least for this latest track, she seems to be staying in SW near the Coast Guard Facility, as opposed to crossing over into Anacostia. We'll keep you posted and, as always, if you're able to help with fliers, please email or call any of us (contact info at right) and we can most definitely use the help! Livvy's been out there for quite a long time; this would be a great month to finally bring her home.

New Sighting of Olivia!

After a bit of a dry spell for sightings, we just received a call from a woman who believes she saw Olivia yesterday (Monday) at 3rd and M St SQ (her known, tracked route)!!!

Thanks so much to all of you who are keeping an eye out for her, and thanks to Debra who suggested the Craigslist ad; that ad brought in our latest sighting. If you happen to see Olivia, please call immediately (Contact info is listed to the right) and one of us can come down and try to find her.

We'll be working with Sam over the next week to determine next steps. And, as soon as we know the plan, we'll let you know so you can help!

All the best,
Team Olivia