Hello everyone, this is Monica with a long-overdue update. We are not giving up and continue to do whatever we can in our search for Raven. Raven has not been seen since November 2nd, when she was spotted near the Lexington Reservoir and Lexington Elementary School in Los Gatos. This has been the longest time without a sighting since Raven was lost nearly two months ago. We are sad and worried -- it will not the best of Thanksgiving holidays for us with our baby dog still lost. . . .
Given that Raven was last seen in the area of Los Gatos that is closest to the Santa Cruz mountains, it is very possible that she has gone into the more woodsy, less-populated area and that would explain why no one has seen her. We maintained a feeding station near the Lexington Elementary School for many days, but unfortunately Raven never returned there. We had a remote, motion-detector camera to take photos of any activity, but it was only some neighborhood cats eating the food that we left out.
Given that there are many less residents in the Santa Cruz mountains, we have gotten creative in our efforts to get out the word about Raven. We are thankful that Raven's flyer and info were posted on the Mountain News Network website (www.mnn.net). We are also getting Raven included in the email newsletters to parents sent out by Loma Prieta School, CT English School and Lexington Elementary.
The folks at Summit Market were kind enough to post Raven's flyer prominently at their store. Our friend Maryann (the "poster queen"), continues to help with flyers and large posters in the area. Mark and Elaine searched one weekend day, while Monica and baby Sofia drove over the mountains and went to the Santa Cruz shelter to put in a lost dog report with them personally. Our friend Cari continues to be a big help with local contacts and suggestions, and well as new people that have contacted us as as result of our craigslist postings, such as Luann.
We had a false alarm last week when we received a call from a very nice man who thought that he might have seen Raven near Soda Springs Road. To make a long story short, we learned through the grapevine that a family who lives right nearby happens to have a male black poodle who looks a lot like Raven. His name is Shadow, and he is a bit of an escape artist. We were able to contact these folks, and they were kind enough to take the time to get photos of their dogs to us. When we emailed the photos to our caller, he confirmed that it probably was Shadow that he had seen, and not Raven. So, while this was not an updated location for us, at least it is good that people are aware of Raven and trying to help out.
On another front, Elaine has contacted an animal communicator again in an attempt to contact Raven. The communicator told us that she saw Raven being taken somewhere in a truck and being allowed to eat and rest in someone's home. To be honest, Mark and I are not really sure what to make of this. We remain somewhat cynical, but on the other hand, we hope that Raven is OK. Of course we want to find her and bring her back home with us. However, until that happens, being cared for by someone else would be the next best thing. At least she is not cold, hungry and possibly injured and vulnerable on her own. . . .
So, we would like to believe that the animal communicator is correct, but nevertheless will keep searching and trying to get the word out about Raven. In the upcoming week, we will revisit our efforts to contact veterinary offices and dog groomers. If Raven has been found by anyone, they might take her in to a vet or groomer for care. There is no way to know if she is still wearing her pink collar -- but if she is, then she would presumably still have the tags with both of our current cell phone numbers and her Alameda dog license. It would be super quick and easy for someone to contact us if they found the collar. Even if she does not have it anymore, she is micro-chipped too, so there is always the chance that the chip would be scanned and she could get back to us in that way.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Please give your dogs a big hug and tell them how thankful you are to have such loyal, devoted members of your family.
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Thank you for the update. I continue to pray for a positive outcome to this story. If you organize a search party...please post so that any one that is interested can assist in the search.
ReplyDeleteI too thank you for the update. It has become a habit for me to check this blog to see if you gave an update. Sorry to hear you have no good news...but as a hobbist communicator, I had the feeling about a month ago that she had been driven away...so the communicator who said she was taken in a truck and then fed and sheltered echoed my own sensations of what had happened to her...this was right about the time that you showed the photo of the other shaggy poodle. I don't remember the exact date but was the reason why I had suggested in my email that date you adopt that photoed poodle. The response I told you about last time I wrote gave me the feeling she was much less worried and in a pretty good spot emotionally and actually felt like something my own poodles respond to me when I contact them. My baby girl, Black Beauty, is almost 2 and she and Raven look very much alike, Beauty is 41 pounds. Whoever has Raven will eventually have to spend the money to have her groomed or the person he sells her too will...so contact as many groomers as the yellow pages show (a group email or a memo to a groomers association should work...it's cheaper too) and advise them this is a chipped dog and if a black female comes in, they should read her chip...who knows, maybe the impossible will come true and you will have her back one of these days when you least expect it to happen. The main thing is that you have had 2 or more professional communicators and me, the goofy hobbyist who has always been psychic with people, feel she is alive and doing okay. If you saw that video of the golden retriever greeting his owner who came back from a long military tour in Afghanistan, you know that your dog just doesn't ever stop loving you...my ex husband gave me a 5 month old pup he could not take care of because he was traveling a lot (to California, in fact)...and about 8 years later, I had to go to my son's house where he was sitting with the older baby while the new baby was being born in the family...he had come because they couldn't find me anywheres and when they did, I had Yoda, the dog who was his for three months before he gave him to me, with me...so I went to their house with my pug in tow...that dog saw him, immediately made a beeline to him, jumped up on his lap and started kissing and nuzzling him like his very best friend in the whole world just reappeared, he was so happy to see him...My ex couldn't believe Yoda still remembered him...but he did and I saw it myself...In the meantime, life goes on...enjoy the holiday season and get on with yours...and the next dog you get...should not be a flyer...my Beauty can leap and fly over a four foot high fence as she knows that secretly she really is an airplane and not a dog....(I now have all five foot fencing around the perimeter of my house...Roberta Levy
ReplyDeletePlease don't allow your skepticism about animal communicators to stand in the way of using this very important tool. While I've (thankfully) never had to depend on one to find a lost animal, two communicators -- one face-to-face, the other 1500 miles away -- have "talked" to my dog about health issues. Their diagnoses agreed and were later confirmed by X-rays at the vet's.
ReplyDeletePS: about the micro chip...
ReplyDeleteMost chips are made by Schering-Plough or AVID. S-P's scanners can read all chips. However,AVID encodes its chips so they can only be read by an AVID scanner. Should Raven have an AVID chip and her rescuer takes her to a vet who has a S-P scanner, the scanner will only be able to tell that a chip is present.
Raven is chipped with an AVID chip. Hopefully if she is scanned, whomever is doing the scanning will have access to an AVID scanner. Seems misplaced to require a special scanner! This sort of thing should be an industry standard.
ReplyDeleteOur concern about animal communicators has to do with our not understanding the principles underlying how such a thing would function, and not wanting to inappropriately "make real" something that might not be (or might be very well intentioned but still inaccurate). We are taking the animal communications we commission and receive seriously, but at the same time keeping in mind that they are not necessarily of the same objective "weight" as say, what we learn from dino and dot while on the scent track. There is more uncertainty involved with making sense of animal communications than with some other evidence we have been able to gather. Hope that clarifies things some.
ReplyDeleteDidn't realize what your commenter said about chips. Wow. Also, sending good energy and wishes and prayers (whichever works) for your family in the search for Raven. And, skeptics or not, now sending consistent messages too, to Raven.
ReplyDeleteI took a 1 day full day workshop with Carol Schultz, one of the premier professional communicators about two years ago. She had five of her group of pros help us neophytes learn the basics of the process. Those of us who have always felt a psychic connection with people seemed to innately connect with the process a tad (not a lot...but a tad) easier than the rest. We were asked to bring 3 photos of dogs in our lives with us that day...I brought one of Curly, my then yearling F1B labradoodle, another of Luke & Prince, my then two pugs and one of Curly and Alice, my 65 lb Boxer grand dogter who could be vicious on occasion with my pugs & was overly dominant with Curly (Beauty was not yet with me and Princie is over the Rainbow Bridge now) ...One of those five women picked up that photo to read it and was captured by Alice's immediate urgent response to her hello...She wanted the gal to apologize to me for hurting Little Prince so much. (when she said that, it really caught my attention!!!) Then she went on to tell me she told the woman that she loves me and she cannot be a good dog when she sees my dogs chewing their bones or playing with their toys or my petting them and not her. She has to have their toys and bones or she will bite and hurt them to get them away from them. And, she cannot help herself or stop herself even though she knows I get angry at her. This went on for a few minutes while my jaw hung loosely on top of my neck...THESE WERE EXACTLY THE PROBLEMS I HAD WITH ALICE WHEN MY KIDS WERE OUT AT MY HOUSE FOR THE WEEKENDS...FOR THE PAST FOUR YEARS SINCE SHE WAS A PUP! I was blown away to say the least.
ReplyDeleteSecond Part of earlier comment: Too wordy for one comment, I guess... I
ReplyDeletelive in a summer lake resort area, moved into my summer home which was my parents summer home five years ago and my kids and their families and pets come back to their summer home every weekend from June to September and we all live together again as a family..And all was well except for the conflicts Alice caused. And she got whopped with folded paper or put into a crate when she started her shenanigans regularly by me regularly. She didn't act that way if my son was in the house but the minute they went out, BINGO...Attila the Boxer appeared. I was at the point where I intensely disliked the animal actually but I couldn't tell my son to leave her home or board her because then they might stop coming out for weekends...and I didn't want that chasm to develop. Princie who was already blind was terrified of her and the other two dogs had problems as well with her aggression.
Well, I tried an experiment the next weekend when they all were out. I took every toy and every bone and put them up in a closet. NO ONE HAD NOTHING..Wonder of wonders: She was an angel dog the whole weekend.... Since then, Alice has been wonderfully behaved when she is in my house. The communicator was right on with what she said. I have watched Alice for at least four vacations my kids took in the last two years for well over a week each time and the only thing I regularly do is separate my now three, Curly, Luke & Beauty, from her by a gate when the four of them are being fed.
So..the moral of my story (or the tail that wags this dog...) is that communicators are for real...and you should be paying attention to any signals you feel on your body or mind when you are talking to Raven...you will get a pretty good read on her yourself by what your body tells you...if all of a sudden you feel a rush of energy go through you, maybe she's exhuberant and doing okay, if the signal gives you a very weak feeling, maybe she isn't, if it's strong and vibrant, up and down your inside, she could be very happy to connect with you....you can do this with your child as well, your husband, your girlfriends, your clients, be aware and stay tuned in and you will be surprised what you sense...
ReplyDeletethere's an old adage When the student is ready, the teacher appears....
Since you have questioned this process, maybe it's your turn to learn it and use it in your own life now!
just read an article on Pawnation about a woman who was searching for her lost dog that was microchipped and she called the company that made the animal's to see if anyone had scanned the dog...she called another two companies whose numbers were also given her to check out if they had any record of it being scanned and one of them did..and when and where it occurred...so contact the various mfgs of the chips, maybe you might also find out a bit of useful information.
ReplyDeleteR.L.
Happy Thanksgiving, I don't have to cook today...that's what daughter in laws and granddaughters are for...so I was sitting and having coffee and looking at all the unmelted snow in my yard from last night's snowfall and also eating half a muffin about a half hour ago for breakfast when my thoughts turned to your family and Raven...and what I wrote you about communicating with her yourself and being in touch with your body sensations. My Curly was sitting on her kitchen chair at the table watching (yes, you read that right...) Beauty had her head on my thighs in case something dropped into her mouth and Lukie was under the table with his mouth open just in case too...when all of a sudden, both the calves of my legs started to tingle up and down to my knees like an animal was rubbing up against them...very contentedly...I felt it was Raven and got the message that she wanted me to let you know she was happy and okay now and that she loved you very much and wanted you to keep talking to her and as I write this, a sensation came over my chest chakra area as if to emphasize that...that's my story and I'm sticking to it...Have a Joyous Day with your family. Hope this helps you a bit to think she's at least in a good spot someplace.
ReplyDelete