Thursday's Track: South From Campbell Along the Creek

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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.