Saturday's search party

I set out from Lexington with Party and Candy for Kathy's around eight am, but stopped at Walmart for markers, tape, various "lost dog kit" supplies. I had gotten 300 flyers and 800 postcard-sized cards printed Friday. On the way out of Walmart, I stopped to give a dollar to some kids collecting for cancer (okay, not FOR cancer, but for research), then got Party and Candy out to poop, even though we had left home half an hour before. Amazingly, they didn't need to, but the kids saw them so I grabbed some of the cards and gave them to them to hand out with their literature and baked goods.

Got to Kathy's only 15 minutes late and met Sirius (Lab), Doodle (Afghan/Whippet) and Agnes (old whippet) Shortly after I got there, Roxann and Polo arrived from Richmond (a two-hour drive). Roxann, even five months pregnant, was slim, trim and gorgeous. Some people... : ) We left all the dogs except Polo with Kathy's son and friend -- I told them not to bother takng Candy and Pafrty out. They had both pooped and peed when I got them out of the car as I arrived. The three of us and Polo got in Kathy's car to hang up more flyers. She's right: Amherst is small. And it's difficult to seach because it is mostly one long busy highway with subdivisions off to the sides. But we handed out flyers and cards to everyone we ran into, including folks at a yard sale, went to the downtown district (two realtors, a barber, a restaurant, a hardware store, and city hall) and pretty well covered that area. Polo was a perfect breed ambassador -- calm, obedient, well-behaved. I was glad my two had not come. He would have put them to shame.

We spent an hour and a half or so, then went back to Kathy's, where Candy and Party had both peed and pooped on the floor. Roxann had to get back home to Richmond for a Derby party, so I headed on to Lynchburg to hit the vets and other places. But while I was still trying to figure out where I was, I got a call from Kathy, who said there were more people with whippets at her house. I headed back over there to find Jill and Mike with Jace and Melissa and Mike with Poppy. Melissa and Mike had driven 2 1/2 hours to come help with the search!

We rounded up all the whippets (except Agnes, who was not at all interested in joining us) and set out to walk the neighborhood. Kathy had already covered the houses immediately around her, so we went on out to the highway and walked for at least 50 miles (okay, maybe three) with the dogs. That was actually very effective. Lots of people stopped to ask us what they were and the usual, and we gave them all flyers and told them about Micmac. Many of them said they had gotten Toto calls. We plastered posters on utility poles and stuck them in newspaper boxes. The dogs were all great. Jace was the youngest, and he was incredily well-behaved. Party was her usual pleasant, affectionate, non-obnoxious self, Poppy was cute as a button -- a tiny mite who absolutely insisted on being in the front of the pack -- and Candy after a few miles was tired enough not to have to jump all over anyone who slowed down near us. The people who stopped to talk to us actually believed they were well-trained dogs.

Well, the bottom line here is we did not find MicMac and we did not find anyone who had seen him. The good news is that we ran into a LOT of people who had received Find Toto calls and others who had seen Kathy's flyers. I would say 99.9% of the people we talked to were friendly and receptive and I got the definite feeling that if they saw him, they'd call.

But the best thing that happened was when Jill and Mike stopped at Hardee's just as they got to Amherst. A man came running over to them with a Micmac card, demanding, "Where did you get that dog?"

I left with the definite feeling that Amherst knew about MicMac and would let us know if they saw him. Next week I'll try to get more done in Lynchburg, I think. It's a much bigger city and I need to figure out where to get the most mileage from the flyers. My club is having a match on Saturday so I will send home cards with all of them. Also, tomorrow at the Federation meeting I'll make an announcement and give every a card and ask them to please tell all their own club members. If as many of you as possible could print out the flyer and send it to the vets, animal shelters, and pounds in your town, it sure can't hurt.

I am really aiming at getting this little boy as much publicity as Vivi. Okay, he can't possible reach that status, but we're aiming high.

Maybe next week....

Sharyn
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Sharyn Hutchens
Timbreblue Whippets -- http://www.timbreblue.com
Virginia