Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Update on the search efforts -- Mac is still missing!


The kindness of the whippet community just staggers me sometimes. Between the generosity of the Whippet Playdate group and the Timbreblue family itself, we have had plenty of money to be able to extend the search for Micmac. We believe that someone is keeping him and that if we can get enough coverage, we might be able to "flush him out." There have been no sightings since he left home -- not even the day he left.

Although there are wooded areas around his house, they are thin woods -- you can see houses on the other side -- and those have been searched thoroughly. The road immediately in front of his house is residential and not busy, but there is a highway about 3/4 mile from his house. It would seem if he had been killed, his body would have been fairly easy to find. (I can't tell you what it does to my stomach to even type those words)

We did use the Find Toto service twice and it is very efficient. When we were putting up flyers and going door to door putting them in mailboxes Saturday, we talked to at least a dozen people who mentioned that they had gotten the calls. The calls went to houses at least seven miles out from Micmac's house, and probably much further. (They provide a call log, and I Googled several addresses for their distance from the house)

We placed an ad in the Lynchburg paper -- lost and found -- for the weekend, but that was $71 and I'm not sure it's cost effective.

One of the our Timbreblue owners is doing a mass mailing to all vets within 60 miles and we'll expand that as possible.

We've listed him on several lost dog databases, including Find Fido.

And Amherst is plastered with flyers! When we met Saturday to search, one of our owners stopped at Hardees with her dog on the way into town. She was approached by a man waving a flyer, demanding, "Where did you get that dog??" So I'd say Amherst is aware.

I'll be back up there at some point this week replacing flyers and taking down ragged or wet ones. (We put many of them in plastic sleeves) and to stop by as many shelters and pounds as I can find. We've contacted them by phone and Micmac's owners have been to the Amherst shelter in person.

We're going to do our best to get some TV or at least radio coverage and I have someone working on Facebook and Twitter -- trying to come up with a YouTube idea, maybe just of our search with a gaggle of whippets, but we don't have video yet. This coming weekend is Mothers Day, so I don' t think it's fair to ask folks to come look again, though I will go earlier in the week. If he is still missing by the following weekend, May16-17, I'll try to get a large group of people with whippets to come and see if we can get some TV coverage. One angle is that this pup is Vivi's nephew -- yes, the Vivi of New York fame who has still not been found. Micmac's father is her half-brother.

I passed out flyers at the Virginia Federation of Dog Clubs and Breeders Sunday and asked them to post them at their vets. Here is a flyer -- if any of you could print it out and post it at your vets and send it to animal control, we would sure appreciate it. There is no telling where Micmac might be if someone traveling through picked him up. He has an umbilical hernia and a retained testicle, so between that and his markings, he should be easy to identify. He is chipped with an Avid microchip.

Again, thank you all so much. The printing costs are pretty high and of course, any advertising is very expensive. So money helps a whole, whole lot. And your prayers and encouragement are also critical to the efforts. We're keeping the faith.

Sharyn Hutchens
Timbreblue Whippets

No comments:

Post a Comment