Could it be Olivia?!

Yesterday I got a call from a shelter in Harford County, Maryland - about an hour and a half (by car) away from DC - about a dog they call Bean who looks incredibly like Olivia! It may or may not actually be Olivia, but this is the first exciting lead since our big search party in December. I am going to try to drive up there and meet this dog today, and I really hope it's Livvie! Fingers crossed...

All I Want for Christmas is My Foster-Dog!

Now that it's December, Christmas is drawing near and, unfortunately for poor Olivia, the weather is getting cold. I hate the thought of her underweight self out there shivering or even just having her ears cold. I have been asking for help putting up flyers and handing out business cards and I am delighted to report that I am getting it! A Forever Home, Olivia's rescue, is organizing a search party on Saturday, December 17.

By the way, A Forever Home has spent thousands of dollars funding the search for Olivia when she wasn't even their ward in the first place - this wonderful group took her on after she was already lost! Please donate to them (/the search) if you can.

Here is an excerpt about the search party from an email from an AFH volunteer:

We really want Olivia back in a foster home by Christmas so we are organizing a large-scale search on Saturday, December 17th in Washington DC. I am asking all of you to please come and help us search. We will search in teams - with each team having a specific area (several blocks) to cover. Each team will be given posters to attach to telephone poles and place in store windows (with permission from store owners). They will also be given business cards to hand out to citizens in the neighborhood. This will be a well planned and well coordinated search, with AFH personnel directing the search. Your responsibilities will be putting up posters, handing out business cards, and talking, talking, talking. We really need to connect with local citizens. They live there and they are the key to finding Olivia.

We want to start early in the morning for several reasons, so are asking that people meet at a designated spot at 9:00 am. We expect the search to take no longer than 2-3 hours. I will be coordinating volunteer sign-up, so please email me ... if you can help us. For those of you who are unable to walk/stand for long periods of time, we can use your help too. Each team is accompanied by someone in a car who shadows the walking teams. A team can be anywhere from 2-5 people. You don't have to come with a team. If you sign up alone to help, we will assign you to one.

I rarely ask for help, but I am asking all of you, as a personal favor to me and AFH, to please come out and help us search. Bring a friend - or friends. Bring husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, and older children. Bring your well behaved, dog and people friend dogs (on a leash).

Please don't let Olivia spend any more time on her own. It's just a matter of time before her luck runs out. We want to find her before that happens. Please contact me no later than Thursday, December 15th to sign up to search.

Thank you.

PS: All searchers will be provided with a contact list of the search leaders, a map of their assigned area, and a "how to" list (which will include search tips).

We welcome help from anyone who can help with the search. (Also, please spread the word, whether or not you can help, in case someone you know might be able to help.) Please email me at lauracolleton@gmail.com if you want to participate. I know the email gives a deadline of December 15, but I'd be happy to accommodate late-comers as well. Thank you in advance for your help with the search. If we can find Olivia and keep her from spending her Christmas hungry, cold, and alone, this will definitely be my best Christmas ever!

Our Latest Olivia Flier

Hi folks. We're gearing up to do more fliering over the next couple of weeks and will be out working to bring Livvy home next Saturday (Dec 17th). If you'd like to help, get in touch using the contact info at right.

If you're already signed up to help, thanks!!!!! I'm including a link below to our latest flier. If you live anywhere near Eastern Market, the SE Waterfront, Anacostia, or Capitol Hill, tracks put her in your area and it would be great if you could help us get some fliers up.

+ Download a copy of our latest Olivia flier (doc)

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!!