We've had some combination of Mark, Elaine or me at our "feeding station" continuously from 3pm Friday until 11pm tonight (Saturday) -- watching several plates of dog food in the hopes that Raven will show up and eat. Even if she is too scared to let us catch her, she would hopefully learn to come back to the same location repeatedly for food and we can work with her over time. We also put out several "scent items" (i.e. our pre-worn clothing), and tucked our baseball caps into the fence above the dog food. Maybe our smells will attract Raven, or be reassuring to her somehow. Anyway, unforunately, we have not seen her yet. Elaine stayed there until 11pm tonight, and we will take an overnight break and resume at 5am on Sunday morning.
The City of Campbell called and asked us to stop putting up our lost dog flyers. They told us they're tearing them all down. It makes me so sad to hear that. We are not trying to sell anything, just desperate for the return of our lost family member. We can continue to talk to people on the trails, though, so that is what we will do.
Thanks so much to all of the friends who helped today. Lynore and Gilda went to the Campbell October Fest to hand out flyers and get the word out. Veronia, Geeta (and probably others too) were out on the Los Gatos Creek Trail looking for Raven. The photo above is of the creek, for those who have not seen it. Randi and others put up posters and had flyers at the all-breed dog show.
Mark and I took a break in the evening, which I think will be really helpful. It is emotionally so hard to keep trying everything that you can, but nothing seems to work. Anyway, hopefully we will have another sighting soon or she will find the feeding station. We really need some luck here, but at least we are doing what we can.
Oh, one last thing: while our feeding station has not worked so far to attract Raven, I am very happy to report that we have actually found and returned TWO other dogs to their families! They were both Labrador Retrievers who showed up to eat the food in the late morning on Saturday. Neither had been lost for very long, and one of the families gave Elaine a nice bottle of wine in appreciation. Maybe this will be some good karma for us going forward...!
I just wrote to the city manager of Los Gatos and told them that they had made a heartless decision to pull down your flyers. Don't they have better things to do than police a grassroots effort to return a lost dog? Good luck - I hope you find Raven soon! I have a black standard poodle as well, and I cannot imagine being in your shoes. It's also really heartwarming to see the effort you are putting in to get your dog back. I volunteer in an animal shelter and sadly I see lots of cases where the owners were not as motivated (or, to be fair, simply did not have the resources to take action). Good luck.
ReplyDeleteSorry, that's Campbell, not Los Gatos :)
ReplyDeleteI'm shocked and dismayed by Campbell's response (or lack thereof). :(
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