Sunday evening - stakeout night 3

About now is the third evening of our dogfood stakeout. No luck so far regarding Raven. We have been urged to be at the site 24 hours, but we are finding that this is just physically impossible to comply with. I (Mark) was physically shaking with fatigue the other day so much so that people sent me home to rest. I'm not used to feeling that way. Others are not too far behind me, I don't think. Our thought is that the Octoberfest and 5k events of the weekend may possibly have made Raven more skittish than normal and now as the weekend ends and things quiet down more we maybe will see her. But quite possibly this is just wishful thinking too. At any rate, we will keep the stakeout going for a while longer as we're able and see what happens. We don't have any better ideas.



This is a photo of our stake-out set up. After we took it we added in the scent items, our worn clothing, directly underneath the plates of dog food. Monica bought a whole case of canned food and we have been putting out new plates (with that fresh from the can smell!) a few times a day.

I'm not personally shocked that the City of Campbell doesn't want our posters around. Cities like this are run by their respective Chamber of Commerce groups, and those chambers are all about the money. Lost dog posters maybe distract people from buying things or disturb the city's charm or are too depressing or something along those lines. It's of a piece with my earlier experience with Safeway, where the supermarket would not let me post a poster. I wonder what a Campbell city manager would do if s/he lost a dog in the area and needed to recruit the help of local people in order to secure the return of the dog?

I want to recognize again, all of the folks who were not on the stake out but were helping in other ways. Wendy and her kids, Veronica and her family and also Randi and Gary of Poodle Rescue all came out to walk the trail, talk to people and hand out flyers etc. Campbell did not have a farmer's market this weekend, but we did have a presence at the alternate event, their Octoberfest, so that many of the vendors there knew to be on the look out for Raven.

Thursday's Track: South From Campbell Along the Creek

R4 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Share and Plan your Trips

We tracked again today, based on the last known sighting of Raven which was last Sunday morning at the Campbell Farmer's Market. Here is basically what we learned today.

- The track started with Raven heading up the hill on East Campbell Ave between 1st and 2nd street. She did a loop out to Winchester and then headed back into Campbell downtown.

- she then headed over to Railroad Avenue area and spent time at the city truck yard (at the end of Dillon), a neighboring junk yard there, and the "Avalon" apartment buildings down at the end of Railroad Ave. It appeared that she may have spent a fair amount of time in the Avalon Apartments. From there she found her way back to the creek trail.

After walking right through Campbell Park (checking garbage cans as she went), she went south down the creek trail right past the dog park (again checking garbage cans and walking into the ladies bathroom there) and then into the perk ponds where she went towards the Dell side and explored down the various pond lanes that run perpendicular to the main north south trail. She explored the perimeters of various commercial properties off of Dell, making sweeps past their dumpsters.

She then returned to the park, crossed a bridge over the creek and went over to the side closer to 17 (near Oka Lane) From there she found a pedestrian bridge and crossed over 17 into a neighborhood north of 85 and east of 17. She did a loop there out to Bascomb and then seemed to have doubled back across the pedestrian bridge back to the perk ponds. The excursion across the walkway had me going quietly nuts, because that seemed to mean that she was leaving the relative safety of the creek trail (with easy shelter and water) for an endless residential area without water or shelter, not to mention that it would also mean an entirely new area where we would have to poster and raise awareness. But she seems to have had the sense to turn around.





These photos show Dot and Dino, the tracking dogs, taking a well-deserved break. Dot is tiny and she loves sitting in our baby's car seat. It is very cute really.

We ended the day in the homes on and near Oka Lane where she had just successfully found a feral cat feeding station in someone's backyard. Dot and Dino were happy to have a break as you can see from the photo. We will pick up the track tomorrow (Friday). The general trend of the movement is south and is along the track she previously used to get to to Los Gatos the first time through. We don't know what moments in time she was on these parts of the track except that this general section of the track started on last Sunday morning. So it isn't clear how far behind her we are now. We may have stopped where she was on Wednesday or Monday - just not sure.

Other observations which are important:

- she is not hiding at all and neither is she secluded or slinking through the bushes while moving. She is walking right down main trails and side trails and streets and the perimeter of commercial buildings (looking for dumpsters). She is using the same paths that people would use. We are unlikely to find her looking in wooded areas (at least as far as today's track is concerned). When she moves, she is on the human pathways almost all the time.

- she is doing a lot of searching for food. At every opportunity, she was looking at dumpsters and garbage cans and feral cat feeding stations. She is hungry now and food search seems to have dominated her movements.

- She is not staying in one place, but rather continuing to move. Fortunately, at least she seems to have decided to stay within the general area of the creek during this section of the track, but she is not staying in Campbell or Los Gatos but rather moving between them constantly.

The big question now is - how do we move from this tracking to the next level which would be something along the lines of setting out food for her in a place where we know she will find it and then be motivated to return to again and again. From what we understand, Raven is quite unlikely to recognize us even if we meet her in the street. After being out so long she will likely be in a sort of survival trance and simply run away from anyone (including her people) who tries to get their hands on her. What typically needs to happen (so we understand) is to get the dog used to feeding at a particular place, and then you can either trap the dog or gradually introduce the dog's people to the feeding area so that they are less freaked out by their presence, and hopefully there are enough cues present that the survival trance breaks and she will recognize us. The problem we face now is that though she is seeming to be staying within a contained area (bounded by the creek and the cities of Los Gatos and Campbell) this is a still a large area of some 5 miles north to south and there is no way to know she will encounter any particular food we might put out. If anyone has any suggestions, our ears are wide open.

Mark

Sunday Wrap-Up: Raven seen in Campbell, she may be traveling on the Los Gatos Creek Trail

Well, we rushed to the Campbell Farmer's Market this morning after receiving word that Raven had been sighted. We found the man who had seen her in front of Bistro Twist and spoke with him, and he was fairly certain that it was her and gave a physical description of the dog complete with collar so we feel reasonably certain that it was her. This was at about 7am during market setup and Raven was moving up East Campbell Ave heading west between 1st and 2nd streets. We split up, with Monica going down towards the creek and walking south, and myself and Veronica and her daughter Isabella walking the length of East Campbell Ave but without result. No one else we met had seen her, but we talked to many people and put up flyers.


Given that we have a sighting from last Sunday (10/4) afternoon at the Campbell Farmer's Market was breaking down; a sighting in Los Gatos on Monday 10/5, and then another sighting today 10/11 at the Campbell Farmer's Market again, it would appear that Raven is staying in the Los Gatos creek system between Los Gatos and Campbell. As our new friend who we have not yet met Kit Lofgren points out:

If she has been seen BOTH this week and last at the Campbell Farmer’s Market AND at Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos in the time in between, it is highly likely that she is traveling along the bike path/trail between those two locations. There is also a dog park at the mid-point. This is VERY GOOD news because it indicates that she is staying off of the roadways. Additionally, the fencing along this corridor is designed to keep animals off of Highway 17. In short it is about the safest place she can be.

Where does this leave us? Though this is great news (that we have a sighting and a bounded area to search), it is still a giant area to search and we did not have any success today. We were confident enough to purchase a FindToto.com automated calling set for the Campbell area to commence tomorrow, and perhaps that will turn up more information. We will be back in the area looking for her. Elaine suggested that it is probably beyond Raven's abilities to know that "Sunday" means market day, and that she was sighted on East Campbell Ave may be less a function of market day than just that on Market days she is more likely to be sighted, and she may be touring these areas daily or almost daily in search of food and just not be being seen in the early morning hours most days. Her plan is to spend some time in the early morning hours on East Campbell and see if Raven sprints by. Myself, I have work to get done in the AM, but I will be out on the Los Gatos Creek Trail south of Campbell Park tomorrow afternoon doing more looking.

We've been in touch with our Pet Detective Jackie Philips, and are on her schedule to pick up with the tracking on Thursday, her next availability.

Interestingly, we got the call to check out the market about 11am. About 9:30 am we got the email response back from the Animal Communicator we had talked to the other evening, Suzi Dalling. Suzi had asked me to send her some concrete questions to ask Raven, so I (skeptical as I am) worked to comply with that. I had asked her to convey to Raven how concerned we are and that we are looking for her, and then a bunch of questions designed to try to narrow down where she might be. Suzi had sent back that she understood that Raven was staying in a place where there was always water (although roaming around looking for food from there), that the place was wooded, with a park a short distance to the east and that it was nearer to Campbell than Los Gatos. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it is at the very least an excellent guess and a coincidence. It is in accord with today's sighting.

As a final note, it continues to be amazing to me how different people react to our story and search. We were in the coffee shop at the Pruneyard Mall area (in between the creek trail and downtown Campbell) this afternoon and the young woman behind the counter was sympathetic to the point that she posted our flyer near the coffee lids so that customers would see it. This young woman was excited to show us pictures of her dog on her cell phone. Another man on a bicycle saw us putting up flyers on a bridge over the creek nearby the Pruneyard, and yelled out "graffiti!" as he road by. Clearly he saw us as nothing more than litterbugs. I suspect that this guy does not have a dog. When it is your family member who is missing, you will do anything to find her and get her back home again.

BREAKING: Sighting @ Campbell Farmer's Market

BREAKING SIGHTING: We understand that a fellow "sergi" or "sergy" selling sausages near "Bistro Twist" at the Campbell Farmer's Market saw a "black poodle with a pink collar moving fast" this morning during setup. It's presently Sunday the 11th of October and the Market is still happening. A week ago she was sighted at this same market during the closing period (around 1-2 pm). We are heading down there as soon as we can with the hope of sighting her ourselves.

IF you are in the Campbell CA area and can respond with us, can you please?

Mark

Pilgrim's Progress

Raven is still not found but wow have we made progress.

Today was an amazing experience. We set out with Jackie Phillips, a pet detective, and her tracking dogs Dino and Dot. Starting at the last confirmed sighting point (Junipero Serra Lane and Hazel Dell) we recorded the following trail:

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=379716

Raven1 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: Geotagging Community

Some of this track is interpreted - the GPS was not recording the whole time and where there are gaps, the line is drawn in from the last known point to the next. So this is not 100% of what we walked but it is pretty close.

The beginning part of the trail is not recorded as I had not thought to download the right app for my iphone, but it went like this.

Raven started out by crossing 280 at Saratoga (South ramp) heading north, and immediately went down into 280 itself. She walked along the freeway's southern edge for a bit - a very dangerous and noisy place! - getting as far as Saratoga North exit ramp and ultimately backtracked back to Saratoga North ramp, exiting by the Harker School (sic?) - a very swanky looking private highschool. She spent some time there as the track went circles around and around, but ultimately she left, heading east on the road just north of 280. This is where the track map starts.

At St Tomas Expressway, she turned and went south until she hit Starbird park. At this park we met two nice women Dede and Tina (I think) with dogs who had seen her , they reported, on Thursday morning something like 7am. Apparently she had tried to play with these dogs, but one of them was an aggressive acting pit and the owner had held that dog back for everyone's safety.

She wandered out of the park and into an apartment complex with many Mexican families and the strong smell of food. Raven had looped around this complex, checking out the dumpsters but ultimately exiting through neighborhood streets, and ultimately ending up a little further south.

At Payne Avenue she turned and started heading due east, crossing S. Winchester Ave and going further east until roughly N. Central ave when she headed north towards Marijane Hamann park. She walked the perimeter of this park, and then, upon discovering a pedestrian skyway across Highway 17, she crossed that skyway.

She continued east, I think on Downing Ave until hitting S Bascomb Ave where she turned south. Here's where it gets really interesting.

There was until recently a Pet Store on S. Bascomb called Bangcok Pet Supply or similar, - part of a larger strip mall complex. Raven found herself in the back area of this particular strip mall for some reason and did her perimeter dumpster check thing. The owner of Bankcok had recently put up a Craigslist annoucement saying that he was out of business, and that there were two large (87 gallon) acquariums he was leaving in the back for the first poeple who could pick them up. This ad was posted on Tuesday the 29th September, and we think it likely that the tanks were gone pretty quickly but apparently people have been showing up to see if they were still there for the taking. When we got there, a fellow was there in a van looking for the tanks. We tracked raven to a hiding spot behind the north dumpster, but Dino could not find a track out of the area. So Jackie thought that someone had come in looking for the tanks, found Raven and put her into a car or truck. So - Jackie had said that Dino could still track the scent of Raven even if she was in a car, and what she did was take Dino across the street and had him check all the corners of the egress areas, and sure enough Dino picked up the track on the far side of the road. It progressed south along Bascomb Ave until abruptly jerking to the west right at the light rail crossing, which also happens to be a creek crossing and a nature trail. It appears that Raven was in a car or truck, and then just jumped out of that vehicle, probably as it was moving and took shelter by the creek. Amazing!!

Down in the creek area is a hidden tent where some homeless person lives. We tracked raven down there and put a poster under the homeless guys's tent front door - maybe he'd seen her? The creek extends to the east and west of Bascomb, and we tracked Raven exploring both ends.

About 100 feet to the south on Bascomb is one of the EBay.com campuses - the Whitman campus, and Raven had gotten there and spent a lot of time going in and around that area, and neighboring condominiums Hamilton Crossing (?). We met a woman not far from there Marcella who reported seeing her in on Thursday afternoon on the median strip of grass in front of the EBay building (apparently a hot dog spot for the EBay workers). This contact with Marcella was on the creek nature trail just north of the EBay complex.

Raven did some exploring to the east of EBay - getting as far as the Valley Christian School and checking out their perimeter/dumpsters before then doubling back west, this time on Hamilton and then picking up back on that nature trail/creek area.

Once back in the creek area, she ultimately went south on the nature trail, crossing under creekside way and then turning left off the nature trail to an easement that connected the nature trail to the road into the historic downtown of Campbell, CA. Phil, who co-owns the self-serve dog wash in the south part of Campbell reported that he saw what was probably Raven on Saturday at 5pm emerging from that connector trail.

We walked up the street into Campbell's old downtown (very cute) and met a few people who said they had seen her. One person said that they had seen her at the Farmer's Market today (Sunday 10/4) in the early afternoon. Another guy at the Orchard Coffee Shop said he had heard about a stray dog being captured by someone who had fed/watered it - we aren't sure this was Raven though.

At this point it was getting to be late in the day, and I stopped accompanying Jackie and Dino and Dot for a while - trading places with Elaine (our friend) and Jackie, Elaine and tracking dogs continued on to search part of the Los Gatos Creek trail. We ended the day at Dell Ave near the ponds. 12 hours of tracking. The trail continued on but we had no daylight to continue to use to follow it. We will pick it up tomorrow morning.

So that is what we have learned and this is an amazing amount of information.

1. Raven was not poisioned. It is highly likely that she is still alive and in the Campbell, CA area.

2. Raven is resourceful and finding ways to take care of herself.

3. Dino and Dot are canine gods.

One of the take-home lessons for us so far is that our posters were failing to draw any sightings, because raven was not in the area we were postering. She had traveled over 6 miles across several days - very far from where she had started. If we had not engaged Jackie and Dino and Dot, we would never in a million years know to look in the Campbell area.

We do not have Raven back yet, but I have to say that I feel an enormous sense of relief knowing that she has done as well has she has done, knowing where she has been (having walked it with her in a way) and that she is likely still alive and hopefully findable.

I'm dead tired so that's all for now, but pretty good stuff, huh? Go Dino!

Mark

I want to put in a postscript about how impressed I am with Dino and what he is doing. Dino is picking out one scent that is over 4 days old from, what, ? - thousands, hundreds of thousands of scents that are all jammed together in a 3D tapestry. He is able to keep one specific thread in mind while ignoring the others (save for minor lapses for squirels and easy to nab food) and do this without visible effort of any sort. That the wind (or cars going across a freeway) may have disbursed the scent doesn't matter much. It's more diluted, but he's still able to find it. I'm guessing this must be in the range of 1 in a billion molecules he is picking up (I'm pulling this figure out of the air but it's got to be something like that). He is a little walking, kibble-eating gas chromatagraph. It is so impressive; I am so in awe.