Regrouping: Tasks, Yahoo Groups & Animal Communicator

No new word of Raven. No confirmed sightings since Monday - five days ago. This is demoralizing and depressing, but as the odds of safe return go way down if we give up, we'll just have to live with this feeling and persevere.

We are fortunate to have the assistance of concerned and sympathetic friends and family

• Monica's mom came into town yesterday and helped search Los Gatos yesterday. Today she helped us by visiting the various shelters without luck.
  
• Mike Murray who we know through German Sheppard Rescue is looking into possible ways to obtain media exposure for this search
  
• Friends at Pet Food Express where Mike works have been putting up posters in their stores
• Randi Plotner of Bay Area Poodle Rescue is looking into communicating with their network of adoptee families to possibly help with the search and has been very helpful with searching and coordinating.
  
• Kit Lofgren and Mary Ann Frank, independently, are searching in the Los Gatos area
• Veronica Presedo-Floyd, also of Poodle Rescue, has opened her home to us while searching and has been very active in searching herself and in helping to coordinate things.
• and more - which I'm too tired to record now, but which are no less appreciated.
  

I (Mark) was able to devote about half the day to the search process. and spent some of it working on a list of things that we need to be doing in order to advance this search process along. These things include:

• inspecting the Animal Shelters frequently and in person
• posting "lost pet" notices on animal shelter websites where this is provided for
• Keeping the Craigslist posting current
  
• Placing ads in large and small area newspapers
• Educating various pet-related professional groups regarding Raven's loss
• Vets
• Groomers
• Doggie Daycare Facilities
• Pet Supply Stores
  
• postering area dog parks
• postering adjoining cities to Los Gatos
• Seeking media opportunities so as to broadcast word and awareness
• Attending pet-related events and handing out flyers
  

We are figuring, given the rate of travel we recorded, that we need to cover the entire south bay area, and that may not even be enough if someone picks her up and drives away with her (but if that occurs, it's a whole other ballgame anyway).

We've covered some of these tasks (Monica and I, Elaine and others above), but could use assistance with executing some of the rest of them. If anyone wants to help us find Raven by , now would be a good time to raise your hand (you can write me at mark@dombeck.com or call 510-325-6979)

We have established a Yahoo groups list to help coordinate communications regarding this search. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/find_raven/ Feel free to join/subscribe and/or pass this on to others who might be interested.

Finally, on the advice of some people we respect, we have begun the process of hiring Animal Communicators to see if they can give us any sort of lead regarding where/how to search for Raven. Animal Communicators are people who report being able to speak with animals at a distance, not in words, but in pictures and emotions and feelings. My wife and I are not familiar with this sort of thing and are skeptical, but at this point in time, we are quite willing to try it and see what happens. A consultation will occur tomorrow and we're supposed to have a report via email by the evening tomorrow, so more about that sometime tomorrow, I suppose.