Sunday, February 27, 2011

Saturday Evening's Efforts

Last night, Aggie's supporters attempted to generate a sighting by setting up a surveillance plan that included teams monitoring five temporary feeding stations, all surrounding Aggie's new home from which she bolted one week earlier.

During the afternoon, scent trails were laid out from five locations, in spokes, leading to the house. Each location was selected for a specific reason; they were places Aggie was sighted or tracked, or had great appeal for a dog at large. Then last night, a team was placed at the start of each scent trail, and given chicken & bacon to place strategically and watch. The hope was that the scent of the meat would draw her to that spot, and then either her picking up the "eau de Sonia's socks" would lead her to the house or better yet, the volunteer team would then alert Sonia, and start a phone tree to alert the other teams so they could converge on the sighting spot. We had a volunteer waiting by the phone to guide any team that needed help navigating to the sighting location. Sonia and I roved throughout all of the surveillance sites plus other areas, always at the ready to respond to a sighting call or assist in any other way. It was a good plan, well executed, and timed during the periods when other Aggie sightings have occurred over the last week.

And nothing. No Aggie showed herself anywhere, at anytime, during a full four hour stretch. There were cats and deer and foxes that were seen. One team was approached by Herndon's finest.  Another team had a tow truck back up to their car, whose driver must have figured out that they were in it so he left. Another had some creepy black truck pass back and forth, back and forth past the car throughout the entire shift. Everyone was out but Aggie.

So we need more eyes out looking, all the time, meaning more outreach is needed. Anyone that can do the biz card thing, or can spend some time putting up large signs that we have made and want installed at some of the big intersections, email me for info on how you can help do that today. Thanks to the volunteer that spent some time re-fliering yesterday, and I think he would probably say that more refliering is needed. The W&OD trail needs to be fliered, particularly between mile markers 19 - 22, so that might be a great excuse for anyone wanting a nice walk or bike ride today. Download fliers from the blog, or I'll tell you where you can pick up a supply of them if you email me.

Sam and Salsa of Pure Gold Pet Trackers will be out today running another track, probably starting from the sighting near the water tower on Thursday evening. We're anxious to learn what Salsa has to tell us.

Someone is surely seeing her. We are waiting for the call.

2 comments:

Laura marinari said...

The search efforts and organization of the search are very impressive. Sending good thoughts from PA that Aggie is found soon and is safe. Have the Craig's Listings been checked?

NHD said...

Thanks, Laura! We do have people checking other postings on Craigslist, but we do need to renew our own Craigslist postings. Glad you had a question to remind us to do that!