Animal House

Pet detective Karin Goin called today to say she will not be coming to search for Vivi after all.

Goin, who was conducting a seminar for aspiring pet detectives in upstate New York, had planned to drive down to New York City today. But a stress-related illness that was affecting three of her dogs prompted a trip to an emergency vet. He advised Goin to return home to Oklahoma and cancel all work for the next couple of weeks to allow the dogs to rest.

Tugs of war over pets

One year after Katrina, survivors sue to bring home rescued animals adopted by others

BY DENISE FLAIM
Newsday Staff Writer

Linda Charles had no idea just how fitting her German shepherd's name would become.

The last time Charles saw Precious, she was in the attic of her mother's New Orleans home the Saturday before Hurricane Katrina turned the city into a toxic soup tureen. With no car of her own, Charles left the year-and-a-half-old dog with a 50-pound bag of Pedigree and 10 gallons of water, and hoped for the best.

And the best did happen - Precious was rescued. But by the time Charles tracked her down in February, she had already been adopted.

"Precious," muses Charles, 41, who is suing the Humane Society of North Texas to learn the identity of her dog's adoptive family, which the Fort Worth group says it cannot reveal because of privacy constraints. "Too precious to be missing in action right now."

A year after Hurricane Katrina unleashed a Bible's worth of natural calamity on the Gulf Coast, some pet owners - mostly of dogs, but a smattering of cats and birds, too - are still searching for the companions they left behind. Rescue groups say when an original owner resurfaced, the vast majority of adopters relinquished Katrina animals, however reluctantly. Indeed, there are heartwarming stories of post-Katrina owners who dispatched dogs in limousines back to their former owners in FEMA trailers, or passed on a financial gift along with the other end of the leash.

But then there are the headline-making exceptions to the rule, such as Charles. Now living in Baton Rouge, La., she does not know who currently has Precious, only that the person was informed that the dog's original owner wants her back and has chosen to do nothing.

About a dozen Katrina custody cases are wending their way through the nation's courts, all of them involving dogs. Consider Master Tank, whose owner was not permitted to take him aboard a rescue boat. The beefy St. Bernard was adopted by high-profile assistant state's attorney Pam Bondi (left) in Tampa, Fla. (She prosecuted former baseball pitcher Dwight Gooden for his probation and substance-abuse lapses, and was once offered her own reality show.) Bondi has said that she did not want to return the dog she had rechristened Noah because he was near death from a heartworm infection and had not been cared for properly.

A new owner reneges

Then, there's Rocket, a 2-year-old chow-spitz mix whose new owner in Doylestown, Pa., said she was going to return him after consulting with staffers of "Dog Whisperer" Cesar Millan. But she reneged, saying through her lawyer that she felt "legally and emotionally entitled" to the dog, who now answers to Rusty.

There's Missy, a 4-year-old shih tzu whose owner, Lt. Japheth "Jay" Johnson (right), was serving in Iraq when the storm hit. His mother left the dog behind when the levee breached, and the lapdog was swept away by a tide of rescuers.

And finally, there's Chopper, who at least has some closure: In January, a New Jersey judge ordered a Flemington couple to return the black Great Dane to the owner who had left him in a Prairie, La., shelter thinking he was in safe harbor.

With this smattering of push-me/pull-you cases, the rescue groups that formed the bridge between the pre-Katrina owners and their post-hurricane counterparts find themselves between the proverbial rock and a hard place. And there's another cliche that fits even more snugly: No good deed goes unpunished.

Alex Geesbreght, board member of the Humane Society of North Texas, says the group handled about 300 Katrina rescues, about a third of which were reunited with their owners. The rest - Precious among them - were adopted out according to guidelines set by the St. Bernard Parish government. In fact, Geesbreght says, his group did not permit any animal to be adopted until after Dec. 31 - a longer hold period than the parish required.

"We empathize with all parties involved - it's not a fun situation," says Geesbreght, adding that Precious was transferred to another rescue group, which in turn placed her. "In a different situation, every party involved in this would be on the same side."

But there are stark differences in how some rescue organizations - the middlemen in these custody battles - are responding. The largest, the Humane Society of the United States, is taking a page out of Switzerland's book: neutrality.

"This is the inevitable consequence of a terrible disaster and a lack of planning," says HSUS president Wayne Pacelle, whose group originally asked rescuers to hold animals until Oct. 15 before they adopted them out; eventually, in a nod to the enormity of the damage, that date was pushed to Dec. 15. "A lot of people left thinking they'd come back two or three days later. There were in general vigorous efforts to reunite, but shelters and others can't hold animals indefinitely."

Persuading adopters

By contrast, Russ Mead, general counsel for Best Friend Animal Society, which ran a shelter for displaced animals in Tylertown, Miss., says the Kanab, Utah, group has made a conscious decision to side with pre-Katrina owners.

When an adopted animal's owner surfaced, "we tried to persuade [the adopters] to give them up," Mead says. "That would work some of the times. The times it wouldn't work and it would hit my desk, we would file suit."

According to Mead, nine such cases were resolved without litigation; a half-dozen are pending.

More than just King Solomon-like tussles among animal lovers, Charles sees a familiar theme amid the refusals to return Katrina animals.

"It's the thing of the rich and the poor," she says matter-of-factly. "Whoever has the most money is where the dog should be. They're calling the dogs abandoned, but Precious is like one of my children. I've had her since she was 6 weeks old. This dog slept in the house with us. She ate when we ate. We had a personal relationship with her."

Charles' attorney, Steven Wise of Boston, who also represents Johnson, notes that there is "a movement of dogs from poor black owners to middle-class white owners. The message is, 'You're poor, and we can take care of these dogs a lot better than you can.'"

Many of the estimated 50,000 animals left behind during Katrina belonged to the poorest of the poor, and in general their care was less than stellar. As many as 80 percent of Katrina dogs tested positive for heartworm, a disease whose cure is painful, even deadly, but one that can be easily prevented with monthly medication. Spaying and neutering were not the norm. And there were a staggering number of pit bulls, some of whose scarred faces spoke of more than just neighborhood tussles.

Wise does not dispute those facts. But "that is an opportunity to educate these folks, and maybe even to finally help them, but it's no reason to take their animals away," he says. "I'm sure if my kids were adopted by Bill Gates, he would be appalled at how I raise them. But I don't think that should be a legal or moral reason for him to get custody of them."

This moral superiority extends to some rescuers themselves. "We hear it from rescue groups all the time - 'The dogs are better off now - stop looking for the owners,'" says Mead, whose group still has two people - down from 100 at the height of the disaster - trying to piece together reunions.

James Bias, president of the SPCA of Texas in Dallas, which adopted out Johnson's dog and is being sued by him to release the new owner's identity, rejects the idea that the Katrina cases are about haves and have-nots. Such refusals to return animals are not unique to Katrina, he says. They happen every day in shelters around the country.

"The only time I've ever had an adoptive family agree to bring an animal back was when the pet wasn't working out in their home," he says. "I can count on two hands in 25 years when I've placed a phone call" and adopters have agreed to return their new addition to the family, however sympathetic they might be.

"How long does it take you to fall in love with an animal?" he muses. "I don't know."

All the representatives of rescue groups interviewed for this story pointed out that they operated during the disaster under the auspices of various municipal and state agencies, which provided guidelines for adoption. At issue now is whether they had the authority to do so.

Tough legal fight

"We're finding that just because some state bureaucrat makes a pronouncement, that doesn't trump 200 years of property law," Mead says, wryly.

And the legal battles are making for some unlikely intellectual bedfellows: In a delicious irony, Wise, who as president of the Center for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights, advocates legal rights for animals, is using property law, which doesn't see the distinction between an ottoman and an otterhound, to argue for the animals' return.

Louisiana's assistant attorney general Mimi Hunley has said that the state's missing animals are considered lost, not abandoned, property, and owners have three years to claim them under state law.

While injunctions are filed, and law clerks shuffle paperwork, Charles is just trying to keep her life afloat. When she's not shuttling to New Orleans to tend to the waterlogged house, she spends her transplanted days in Baton Rouge taking her wheelchair-bound mother to elder care, caring for her two young children, and cleaning and cooking.

"My life is a big, old amusement park," says Charles, who expects she will never return to New Orleans. "Except there's no popcorn, no lemonade and no candy apples."

With Precious, at least, she'd like the merry-go-round to stop.

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

Photos: Austin American-Statesman; Steve Nesius; Best Friends Society; J. Conrad Williams, Newsday.

Vivi searchers were out in force this weekend, including Rick Patterson, the fiancee of Vivi ci-owner Jil Watson, fresh from California; greyhound recovery expert Michael McCann of Massachusetts; and detection-dog handler Laura Totis, who had searched for Vivi before in other neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, a canvassing of the pond area in Forest Park yielded no "hits" by the search and rescue dogs. The dogs did show some interest in the nearby golf course, but the scent likely was not fresh.

Film recorded at one of the Forest Park feeding stations showed a small white dog and her larger companion chowing down. Unfortunately, the white dog was not Vivi, and there are concerns that some previous sightings may have been of this dog.

Given that Vivi has not been sighted in weeks, two conclusions are possible: One, that she has moved on and is in another area. Or two, she has whelped puppies in the vicinity and is staying close to them.

Searchers are in the process of obtaining a "bionic ear" hearing amplifier, in the hopes of hearing Vivi if she is bedded down in the adjacent acreage or graveyards.

Pet detective Karin Goin is expected to arrive later this week to help track down the little whippet that has, in McCann's words, "broken all the rules" as to how runaway sighthounds are supposed to behave.

The second in an occasional series that introduces Vivi searchers near and far.

Name: Karen Stinnett
Location: Jeffersonton, Virginia -- aka "horse country."
Age: "I forget. Oh, yeah. 50."
Occupation: Artist and art teacher
Fur-family: Karen has three rescue dogs -- Grace E and Patch, who are border collies and enthusiastic agility competitors, and Phoebe the collie -- as well as Big Kitty, a 20-pound Maine coon. Two "constant visitors" include a Springer spaniel and "one who looks like Cousin It from 'The Addams Family.'"
Favorite American idol: "They all look the same to me."
Pet peeve: "I hate meetings, even more when they pass out an agenda and then read it to you."
Hobbies: "Agility, which took the place of horses after the horse I had for 25 years died of old age. Patch’s hobby is running in circles around the UPS truck when it stops in the driveway."
Favorite flick: "I like to watch the video I have of the 1973 Belmont Stakes, never tire of it." Also: Fellini’s "Amarcord."
Role in the Vivi search: "Coordinator of the out-of-town search-support effort" best describes it. Karen also sends out a daily electronic Vivi update.
Why she started the e-mail updates: "I saw a lot of people who wanted to help, but had no idea what to do. As it has gone on, we all begin to forget who has been called and when. I have almost 600 saved emails in my Vivi Bulletin file and probably that many on my laptop."
Who gets them: An assortment of people who are willing to help, fax, mail and make calls.
How someone gets on the "in" list: "By helping. I only send to those who have been willing to do something concrete. Then the blog can be for everything else."
Most moving thing about the email list: "We have one person who is a 9/11 survivor who says she survived in part by going home to a little dog who has since died of old age. She says to her, Vivi has come to symbolize 'the one who must be saved.'"
What it's like to watch the Vivi search from afar: "Sometimes it's stressful, because we cannot see for ourselves what is happening. Sometimes, wacky. I find myself explaining it while, say, visiting friends in Maui. 'I have to check my email because I am searching for a Whippet in NYC!' 'Oohhkay,' they say.'"
Toughest agility moment: After Grace E (right) did one jump in a series of them, Karen heard a gasp from the crowd: Her dog had had diarrhea between the first and second jumps. On AstroTurf, no less. "That’s a disqualification, by the way. And I got to clean it up, with an audience."
Most embarrassing thing your dog's ever done: While Grace E takes the cake (and most likely ate it, too), Karen's late German Shepherd, Zak, mistook her car for a pickup and jumped on its roof, and ate a Thanksgiving cheesecake while visiting a family Karen barely knew. He also mounted a woman from behind as Karen was talking to her. "I saw his paws appear around her waist. I could go on ... "
What the blog has taught you: "You can get to know people you have never seen."
What people say when they see one of your paintings: "One hundred percent of the time, the question is, 'How long did it take you to do that?' Then they often say, 'My house needs painting. Ha ha.'"
Ever plan to paint Vivi? “I usually paint architectural subjects, but for fun and friends I often paint animals and have a portfolio of them. I painted a greyhound last year. So, perhaps.”

Duke's owner Denise Menendez reports that the pitbull was granted a stay of execution and will not be euthanized on Friday. Another rally is planned -- stay tuned.

Emanwhile, Duke's website (and petition): www.SaveDuke.homestead.com

Duke the pitbull has a web site where supporters can sign a petition:  www.SaveDuke.homestead.com

Dog trainer says death row rulings were unjustified

BY DENISE FLAIM
Newsday Staff Writer

August 22, 2006

Duke's time is running out - and Jeff Kolbjornsen would give anything to just throw away the hourglass.

Kolbjornsen, 46, founder and owner of Elite Animal Trainers in Islip Terrace, recently developed an avocation for saving death-row dogs named Duke.

The first, a 1-year-old bulldog from East Meadow who tagged along with two Rottweilers when they mauled a 4-year-old boy in April, was spared. But the other Duke - an amber-eyed pit bull who accosted this reporter with slobbery kisses - is slated to be euthanized Friday.

"These two Dukes have a lot of things in common," said Kolbjornsen, who brought the two together for a photograph yesterday. "Both of them have been unjustly accused."

Duke the pit bull has been impounded at the Town of Islip shelter for 2 1/2 years - more than half the 4 1/2-year-old dog's life. He was deemed a dangerous dog in November 2003 when his owner, Denise Menendez of Hauppauge, failed to attend a hearing to respond to a neighbor's accusations that Duke and her female pit bull had attacked his dogs and horse. (Menendez said her husband went to the wrong court house.)

Menendez failed to follow the court's order to keep the dogs penned when outside, and a month later, the neighbor, Dominick Motta, alleged the pit bulls attacked his American bulldog. In February 2004, a judge ordered that Duke be euthanized. This July, the appellate division of the State Supreme Court denied Duke's most recent appeal.

Kolbjornsen said Menendez hired him a year ago to evaluate Duke. He started with pressing and pulling on the pit bull's ears, feet and flanks. No response, but for tail wags. Kolbjornsen rolled the unneutered male on his back. He picked him up and restrained him. He ran up to his face and stamped his feet. He took away toys, moved his food bowl while he was eating.

Nada. Zero. Zip.

"I was pushing this dog to see if he would react, but he has the temperament of a Labrador retriever," said Kolbjornsen, who organized a rally last week to publicize Duke's plight and has helped Menendez find new legal representation. "There's no proof that this dog was the one that did it, and everything points to the fact that he didn't."

Workers at the shelter mirror Kolbjornsen's assessment, saying the dog's greatest transgression has been to leap atop a table to help himself to a container of Milk-Bones during Menendez's frequent visits.

Kolbjornsen, whose calm, steady manner invariably evokes comparisons to "Dog Whisperer" Cesar Millan, said he helps rehabilitate problem dogs for local shelters, and has about 10 dogs available for adoption to the right homes. He added that a request to stay Duke the pit bull's euthanasia order could be filed as early as today.

The first Duke already has his fairy-tale ending: The two Rottweilers involved in the child's mauling were euthanized, with the young bulldog headed for a similar fate - until Kolbjornsen volunteered to evaluate him.

Kolbjornsen's temperament testing confirmed what many bulldog aficionados already suspected: "Duke's a follower - he doesn't show any signs of being a dominant dog." A compromise to save the dog's life was struck when Kolbjornsen agreed to board and train Duke at his facility until the bow-legged bowser is placed with a new owner who lives out of state and does not have any children.

"He's a great dog - I just told him that tonight," Kolbjornsen said of the smushed-faced pup. "I'm going to be sad to see him go."

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

From today's column:

Little dogs aren't for toying

Denise Flaim
Animal House

August 21, 2006

It's too easy to blame Paris Hilton.

After all, teeny-tiny dogs were hot millennia ago, when "The Simple Life" was indeed just that.

Consider, for example, the pear-shaped Pekingese and the monk-guarding Lhasa apso, which both predate Christianity. In the intervening centuries, humans continued to breed dogs for small size and big personality, from Renaissance royalty, which rarely posed for a portrait without a toy spaniel in hand, to those kooky Victorians, whose fondness for pugs reaffirmed the very modern notion of "so ugly, it's cute."

At the kickoff to this century, toy dogs are as popular as ever. Much of this has to do with the unfortunate "marketing" of them as accessories - warmer than a scarf, cuter than most Dooney & Bourkes.

But before you make a decade-plus commitment, remember that little dogs come with big caveats, including:

It's anatomy, Watson. Most toy breeds have small litters - perhaps only two or three pups. And they can easily have price tags in the thousands.

A well-bred puppy generally doesn't cost more than a pet-store puppy that likely came from a puppymill. (If you have to ask what a puppymill is, then you need to do more homework.)

Consider a rescue dog, or buy from a reputable breeder who does appropriate health screenings and who insists on meeting you in person. And be prepared for the inevitable waiting list.

"Do not buy a puppy over the Internet," warns Darlene Arden, author of the newly revised "Small Dogs, Big Hearts: A Guide to Caring for Your Little Dog" (Howell, $19.99). "If they take VISA and MasterCard, run."

The view from the curb never changes. Given their diminutive stature, toy dogs have a different world view - literally.

"If you only come up to people's ankles, what does the world look like?" asks Arden rhetorically. To get the idea, she suggests you lie down on your driveway next to your car and take in the panorama. "Everything is humongous."

Swooping down on toy dogs, or even patting them on the head, can lead to skittishness and fearfulness; instead, it's best if you sit on the floor for your initial training, or put the dog on a slightly higher surface such as a wide bench.

But don't let him get too accustomed to the altitude. "If you pick up a dog, you are elevating his status, and there are times when you don't want to do that," says Arden. To prevent your Papillon from becoming a Napoleon, let him walk places on his own steam, unless he's truly tired.

A choke, prong or most any collar is a no-no for toys, which are prone to collapsing tracheas. Instead, Arden recommends using a harness. If you must use a collar, use a flat one, and no jerks or pops, please.

At least they have their health. Well ... toy dogs are often far more delicate than your average Fido. Perhaps the most extreme example are Italian greyhounds, which can and do break legs just by jumping off couches.

Hypoglycemia is a life-threatening concern in toy puppies, Arden warns. "You can go out in the morning and come home to a dead puppy that night." (Triage: "Put sugar water or Karo syrup on the dog's gums and run to the vet as fast as you can.") For this reason - and because toys develop more slowly than larger breeds - most breeders keep them until 12 weeks of age.

Did we mention dental problems? A Chihuahua has the same number of teeth as a Great Dane - just less room for them, Arden notes.

"Toy dogs can retain deciduous teeth. You'll see some Yorkies living with double row of teeth" - making daily brushing that much more critical.

Children optional. While there are exceptions to this rule - the sturdy pug come to mind - small dogs are often not the best choice for a families with youngsters, who often take the "toy" label more than literally.

"Anything a child can pick up, he can drop, and most small-dog breeders will not sell to homes with children," Arden says, adding that socializing toys to kids is still a must. "If they don't get used to children as puppies, they never will like them."

Love the one you're with. Potential dog owners need to contemplate how a breed's hard-wired instincts will mesh with their lifestyle. Don't like frenetic barking? Don't get a herder. Don't like independence? Don't get a hound.

And ... if you can't provide regular companionship, don't get a toy, which was bred to crave interaction with humans. Nine-to-5-ers might want to hire pet walkers for a midday visit, or enroll their dog in day care, Arden suggests.

Expect puddle-jumping. "Toy dogs can take up to a year and a little more to be reliably house trained," Arden says, "and some never are." (The Bichon and its cousins, the Maltese, Coton de Tulear and Bolognese are tough customers in this regard.)

Because toys tend to lose heat rapidly, they'll need a sweater or coat to go outside in colder weather, another barrier to housebreaking. "Unless you're willing to sleep in sweats and get up at 3 a.m. for the first year," Arden says cheerily, "don't get a toy puppy."

WRITE TO Denise Flaim, c/o Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville, NY 11747-4250, or e-mail denise.flaim@newsday.com . For previous columns, www.newsday.com/animalhouse

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

Photos (c) Newsday and Getty Images

Luck Runs Out for Undercover Cat

By Anthony M. DeStefano

(c) 2006, Newsday

NEW YORK — Like a shooting star, his life was short and bright.

But Fred, the friendly undercover kitty who captivated the city with his law enforcement exploits, is dead.

The domestic shorthaired cat who was used earlier this year to nab a suspected fake veterinarian was accidentally hit by a car Thursday and killed outside his home, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes announced Friday.

Just over a year old, Fred was found dead in the street by Carol Moran, the animal’s adoptive owner who is an assistant district attorney with Hynes.

“He belonged to the world. I wish I could apologize,” said a distraught Moran.

The driver of the vehicle never stopped, Moran said. She added that it was unclear if the driver even knew an animal had been hit.

Fred catapulted to fame in February when prosecutors used him to lure a suspected bogus veterinarian to a home in Brooklyn. The suspect, Steven Vassall, 28, allegedly said he could make house calls for animals.

With Fred looking on from his carrier, Vassall told undercover detectives that he would neuter the animal for $135, prosecutors said. Vassall was arrested when he stepped outside the home with Fred.

Vassall, who has pleaded not guilty, faces charges of unauthorized use of a professional title, as well as torturing and injuring animals he allegedly worked on.

Fred appeared at news conferences and received awards, including a special “Broadway Barks 8” citation from a theater district animal adoption benefit.

60 puppies headed to Northeast pet stores die in tractor-trailer fire in Massachusetts

LOWELL, Mass. (AP) — A trailer carrying dozens of puppies to Northeast pet stores caught fire just off an interstate, killing all of the estimated 60 dogs inside, authorities said.

The driver first noticed smoke coming from his trailer just before 5 p.m. Monday, state police said. He pulled over, and the Lowell Fire Department put out the flames that engulfed the trailer, but they couldn’t save the puppies.

The puppies were a variety of breeds between the ages of 8 and 12 weeks, according to a state police news release.

Neither the driver, identified as Joseph Price, 40, of Joplin, Mo., nor his passenger, William Iriarte, 50, of Nesho, Mo., was injured.

A preliminary investigation indicated that a malfunctioning fan in the rear of the trailer may have started the fire, police said. No charges have been filed.

The truck was owned by the Hunte Corp. of Goodman, Mo., a major puppy supplier for pet stores.

“The puppies were all beautiful, healthy purebreds that were on their way to quality retailers in the northeast and eventually to loving New England families,” the company said in a statement. The company said it has a near-perfect safety record.

Search coordinator Bonnie Folz checks in:

<<Vivi Update - 8/14/06www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5638218 

Tuesday, August 15, marks the sixth-month anniversary of the day that Vivi was lost by employees of Delta Airlines at JFK Airport. As I reflect back on that day, I can remember exactly what I was doing when I found out about the whippet lost in the airport just minutes from my home. I thought I'd grab a coat and gloves and run out quickly to help corral the dog. She'd be on her merry way, back to wherever it was she was flying off to in no time. Never, ever did I imagine that six months later, I would be sitting here typing "updates" to the world on the progress being made to still try and find Vivi.

Funny how the careless actions of one can change so many lives, huh?

The Vivi Team spent much of last week making phone calls and typing emails coordinating what our next move would be. Trying to stay ahead of Vivi has not been easy. We're happy that Vivi has been in and around the same area for about two months now, but pinpointing a specific location or even a few block radius of where she may be, is anyone's guess. We are working with a huge, in some spots, heavily wooded, park and cemeteries spanning a good couple of miles, not to mention the various neighborhoods bordering them.

We've set up a feeding station and a couple of cameras, but are having instances with the cameras not working properly. I hope to get this issue resolved as soon as possible as these cameras are our eyes when we cannot be around.

After Denise Flaim's article last week on Viv's upcoming anniversary, National Public Radio called to do a phone interview.

The Vivi Team was also contacted by the NY Daily News, the Queens Tribune and People magazine to do follow-up stories. Some of the local radio stations picked up on the story and mentioned Vivi as well. Keeping Vivi alive in the media is very important to our search effort as it will help us to keep the public aware that she is still missing. Though we continue to post up fliers, these may sometimes go unnoticed by someone who may have seen Vivi and may read about her or see her on the news.

This weekend's "Vivi Door Hanger Blitz" went fairly well. We had about 15 volunteers on hand to put door hangers out to nearby residences, posting and reposting where flyers may have become weathered or torn down as well as canvassing the area.

Jil's fiancé, Rick (Vivi's  dad-to-be), will be back in New York within the next week or so. We are also looking into bringing tracking dogs back to possibly narrow down an area where Vivi may be frequenting so we can concentrate on a smaller area for feeding stations. We need to have Vivi comfortably coming back to a feeding station on a regular basis before any talk of actually trapping her can be done.

Lots of small steps to take before Vivi is back home, but the Vivi Team volunteers have shoes with thick soles (well, maybe a few holes here and there), and we are keeping the faith!

Bonnie>>

National Public Radio chimes in at www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5638218

Be sure to listen to the audio.

Not-so-little birds tell me People magazine has been sniffing around, too!

Search coordinator Bonnie Folz updates:

<<Good news! We received two sightings of Vivi, back to back, on Monday afternoon just a half hour apart! Seems that Vivi has been in Forest Park and surrounding areas since mid-June. For those who do not know Forest Park, it is densely wooded in many spots, unlike the other parks Vivi has visited before, with ample supply of water and a wildlife buffet.

As I surveyed the recent sighting area, I heard a small rustling in the brush. I looked down to see a beautiful black kitten, maybe 10 weeks old, staring back at me. As I tried to approach her, she scrambled away a few feet and turned back to look at me. As I continued on my walk I heard squeaking from that same area. I took a few steps back to look at the kitten and this time when she looked up at me, she had a field mouse in her mouth. All I can say is, if this young kitten is hunting and surviving in this park, Vivi is probably doing just fine.

We are hoping Vivi has become comfortable with her surroundings and will stay in there till she can be trapped. Vivi will be missing for six months this coming Tuesday. I know there are many cases of lost dogs being missing for longer periods of time and continue to pray that she will be back with Jil soon.

We are in the process of setting up feeding stations with motion cameras and ask that anyone that would like to help in the search and visits the park or surrounding area, please, DO NOT leave food out for her when you go. It has become more of a hindrance than help with too much food being left out. We also know trampling the area looking for Vivi will only startle her and drive her away. It is suggested that those who wish to help, find a spot within the park or cemeteries and simply sit and watch. You may want to bring along binoculars and some tasty, smelly treats and make believe you're snacking on them while nonchalantly "bird watching" per se. This is probably the best way any  of us will be able to spot her and keep her in the area.

We are also working with tracking dog people to come in and possibly give us a better look at where Vivi may have been and narrow down the area.

I am coordinating a "Vivi Door Hanger Party" this Saturday, starting at 8 a.m. We will meet at the Forest Park Band Shell parking lot just inside the park on Forest Park Drive off of Woodhaven Blvd in Glendale. The door hangers have been ordered and we plan to get them out to as many homes as possible. We are in dire need of volunteers. Please, if anyone can come out, meet us on Saturday. If you cannot be out at the time we are meeting, please contact me and I'll be glad to get you supplies and provide you with what blocks still needed to covered, 917-626-1374.

We can ALWAYS use any extra help anyone can give, even if it's for a few hours during the week. There's been a break in the heat wave we've had here in NYC and the weather looks good for the days ahead.

We hope to get more media coverage to help with our continued focus on keeping the public aware that Vivi is still missing and has been seen.

Numerous volunteers continue the email, fax and mailing campaign as well as those on the ground posting fliers. These are truly Vivi's angels.

Thank you, Denise and Newsday, for keeping folks aware.

I appreciate everyone's continued support.

Keep the faith!

Bonnie>>

<<In tomorrow's print editions, and currently up on the Newsday.com home page, along with a slide show. Denise>>

Search for 'Vivi' continues

BY DENISE FLAIM
Newsday Staff Writer

August 8, 2006, 8:03 PM EDT

Remember Vivi? A handful of diehard searchers do.

Tuesday marks the six-month anniversary of the wandering whippet's escape from her crate at Kennedy Airport after she competed at the Westminster dog show (left, with handler and co-owner Paul Lepiane). Though Vivi's owners eventually returned home to California, the search for their dog never stopped. In fact, it has taken on a life of its own.

There's a toll-free number, 877-JFK-VIVI. There's a conga line of sightings all over Queens, a half-dozen of which were confirmed by tracking dogs. (The latest, albeit unconfirmed: On Monday two passersby reported seeing her in Forest Park in Glendale.)

And, not least of all, there's a small army of two dozen or so volunteers, both local and long distance, who send e-mails and make phone calls, staple posters to telephone poles, and follow the roaming whippet's every move, real or imagined, on blogs and e-mail lists.

"They call me the Flier Queen," says Diane Tamm of Flushing, who estimates 50,000 fliers depicting the white and brindle whippet have been tacked up since that frigid February day when she bolted into the airport marshland. Another 15,000 wait in her garage.

The coming months could provide a break in the search for the AWOL whippet, who looks like a miniature greyhound: Vivi was expected to be in heat in late June, and last month the normally reclusive whippet was spotted with a pack of stray dogs.

Motherhood could curtail Vivi's wanderlust, at least temporarily, says Michael McCann of Randolph, Mass., an expert in corraling renegade greyhounds, some of which spend more than a year on the lam.

Even in such company, Vivi stands out. "This whippet has got me crazy -- she just isn't routine driven," says McCann, who spent a weekend canvassing for Vivi amid the whoosh of Woodhaven Boulevard. "No matter what you do, she pops up somewhere else a mile down the road."

Indeed, Vivi's Tour de Queens most resembles a game of hopscotch: Venturing into Jamaica from the airport, she surfaced in Flushing, then followed a greenbelt of parks to College Point and Whitestone. By May, she was spotted in St. Albans. After a detour to suburban Valley Stream, Vivi headed back west to Glendale, where she has been seen since mid-June.

Whippets, like greyhounds, are sighthounds -- speedy dogs that hunt by sight. Perhaps harking to their ancient nomadic roots, "they turn into wild dogs very quickly," McCann says. "And they turn back to good house dogs 10 seconds after you catch them."

Vivi doesn't seem to much miss domestication. She avoids baited traps, runs from strangers, and likely survives on trash-bin hors d'ouevres. With such an independent dog, McCann says, there is only one remedy: tincture of time.

"You're not going to catch a sighthound that can run 40 miles an hour, and she's not going to go up to somebody," he says. "The likely scenario is she'll go into a yard or garage and someone will close a gate or door behind her."

The waiting is the hardest part, concedes Vivi's breeder Bo Bengtson of Ojai, Calif. "I never thought she would cope" with the tundra-worthy East Coast winter, much less the traffic, he muses. "For this little show dog to have that much resourcefulness is pretty impressive."

What's even more stunning, he adds, is the outpouring his "Elvis phantom" dog has generated among complete strangers a continent away. "I don't want to be ungrateful, but also wish other dogs could get this attention."

Some have. In their travels, Vivi volunteers have rescued a Dalmatian, a Pomeranian, four kittens abandoned in a Dumpster and a litter of nine puppies living in a hollow tree in a cemetery, among others.

But Vivi still tops their list. Tamm owns four whippets, the youngest of which resembles Vivi, and "I can't take her for a walk without getting dirty looks," she reports. Rather than a bother, it's proof to Tamm that Vivi is still on people's radar screens.

"I wanted her to be the most famous whippet in the world," Bengtson says. "But I didn't want her to be famous for this."

For updates on the Vivi search, visit newsday.com/animalhouse.

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

AP Photo/Westminster Kennel Club>>

After lying low for an excruciating (to her searchers, at least) two weeks, Vivi resurfaced this afternoon -- not once, but twice.

Two passersby called the Vivi hotline around 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. to say they had startled the whippet while she had been bedded down in the brush in and around Forest Park in Glendale. In both cases, she bolted. This is the same area where Vivi has been spotted multiple times in of July.

While these Vivi sightings are indeed welcome news, the hope is that searchers will focus their efforts on raising awareness of Vivi's presence among area residents through putting up fliers and posters instead of trying to "track her down."

Sighthound rescuers such as Michael McCann of Greyhound Amber Alert stress that in order to capture lost dogs such as Vivi, the goal should be to encourage her to establish a routine -- something she has not done to date. Generating too much activity and disturbing her at a time when she seems to be making herself at home could prompt her to move on into newer -- perhaps more dangerous -- territory.

For kitty sympathizers, there is an online petition in support of the Hemingway cats at www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?MCPI.

For those curious about the genetic mutation that gives them extra toes -- a condition formally called polydactyly -- here is a column I did on the subject last year:

These cats have fancy footwork

By Denise Flaim

Hemingway had a lot of them. And we're not talking about hangovers.

Though they sound like something out of the Mesozoic Era, polydactyl cats are, literally, "many toed," having more than the requisite five front toes (including the dewclaw, which does not touch the ground) and four rear toes. (Ironically, the noun form of the word, polydactyly, resembles the condition it describes, with that last "y" looking for all the world like a superfluous appendage.)

While the most famous of these big-footed felines reside at the "Old Man and the Sea" author's Key West home, polydactyl cats aren't as rare as one might think. Colonies persist in certain cities - many of them port towns such as Boston and Halifax, Nova Scotia - and polydactyl cats have been noted in Britain and Scandinavia.

The murky history of these "mitten kittens" suggests they were favored by sailors, who, depending on what you read, thought them lucky, equilibrially enhanced or well equipped for ratting. Hemingway's first six-toed kitty was supposedly a gift from a ship's captain.

But seafaring isn't the only cause of their far-flung popularity. "Polydactyly crops up rather frequently" in cats, says Leslie Lyons, an assistant professor and geneticist at School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California at Davis. In some instances, she says, it is a mutation that just spontaneously arises.

In some breeds, such as Maine Coons, polydactyly is thought to be a simple dominant trait: Only one parent needs to be polydactyl in order to pass it on, with each offspring having a 50 percent chance of being "digitally enhanced." This is presumably how Hemingway's extended cat family earned its tropical snowshoes.

And conversely, such dominant traits are easy to breed away from, which is how polydactyl Maine Coons - by some estimates comprising 40 percent of the breed in its early days - were curtailed in that purebred population: Modern breeders simply decided not to breed cats with the trait.

Today, some Maine Coon breeders have revived these "polycoons," and are lobbying to have them accepted. In only one breed, the Pixie-Bob - created in the American Northwest to resemble the wild look of the native bobcat - are polydactyl cats considered as acceptable as "straightfoots." (Though seven toes is the official limit.)

Some of the bias against polydactyly may come from a concern that the extra toes adversely affect a cat's health or functioning.

This does not seem to be the case, says Lyons. "I see it as a rather innocuous variant," compared to others, such as Munchkin cats, which exhibit a form of dwarfism that can arguably make life more physically challenging. The extra digits even come in handy - literally. "Some polys actually use and manipulate them to grasp and pick up food."

Predictably, polydactyls are popular, "just because they're different," says Pixie-Bob breeder Amy Peterson of LegendTales Cattery in Everett, Wash. Her only caveat is that owners need to carefully trim all those excess claws, which can become overgrown and curve into the paw pad.

A footnote in this polydactyl discussion is an unfortunate phenomenon dubbed Twisty Kats by the Texas horse breeder who created a Web site about them five or so years ago. Produced from pairings of bobtailed polydactyls, these deformed cats had radial hypoplasia, resulting in underdeveloped, missing, misshapen or flipperlike forearms. The "kangaroo cats" caused a furor on the Internet, and the breeder is not offering them for sale.

Lyons stresses that the twisty mutation is "the more extreme expression" of polydactyly, and it is not a foregone conclusion that poly breeders will produce it.

But as breeders seek to revive and even create more polydactyl breeds - polys crossed with Bengals, for example, are now dubbed Mojave Spotteds - they need to be especially vigilant.

"Breeders should be responsible and breed carefully to make sure there are no health issues," Lyons says, adding that too close inbreeding and a focus on the more toes, the merrier might lead to trouble down the line.

"At some point," she concludes about the impulse to add "just one more" toe, "you have to ask yourself, 'When do you call it quits?'"

Write to Denise Flaim, c/o Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville, NY 11747- 4250; or e-mail denise.flaim@newsday.com.

(c) Newsday

Photo credit: Amy Peterson

Hemingway home asks judge to intervene in cat dispute with USDA

MIAMI (AP) — The caretakers of Ernest Hemingway’s Key West home want a federal judge to intervene in their dispute with the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the six-toed cats that roam the property.

More than 50 descendants of a multi-toed cat the novelist received as a gift in 1935 wander the grounds of the home, where Hemingway lived for more than 10 years and wrote “A Farewell to Arms” and “To Have and Have Not.” The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum disputes the USDA’s claim that it is an “exhibitor” of cats and needs to have a USDA Animal Welfare License,
according to a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Miami.

“What they’re comparing the Hemingway house to is a circus or a zoo because there are cats on the premises,” Cara Higgins, the home’s attorney, said Friday. “This is not a traveling circus. These cats have been on the premises forever.” A message left Friday afternoon at the Washington, D.C., office of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service was not immediately returned.

The agency has repeatedly denied a license for the Hemingway home under the Animal Welfare Act, which the home contends governs animals in commerce. The USDA has threatened to charge the home $200 per cat per day for violating the act, according to the complaint.

“We’re asking the judge to let us know whether this act applies to the cats, and if so why that is if the animals are not in commerce,” Higgins said. “If it has something to do with the number of cats, how many do we have to get rid of to be in compliance with the act?” Agency inspectors who have repeatedly visited the property since October 2003 have never indicated any concerns about the welfare of the cats. But they have said a 6-foot-high, brick-and-mortar fence Hemingway built around the property in 1937 did not sufficiently contain the 53 cats, which should be caged, according to the complaint.

Caging the cats, some of which are 19 years old or older, would traumatize them, and the home’s designation as a National Historic Site prohibits extending the height of the fence, the complaint said.

The tourist site complies with city and county ordinances, Higgins said. “We don’t know why the USDA got involved in this,” she said.

(c) The Associated Press

(AP Photo/Florida Keys News Bureau, Roberto Rodriguez)