Animal House

The sixth in an occasional series. Happy Halloween, everyone!

Name: Denise Flaim

Location: Long Island

Age: 41 -- honest!

Occupation: Journalist, supermom, blogger.

Family: Long-suffering husband Fred, toddler triplets (“the human litter”) and two Rhodesian Ridgebacks.

Hobbies: Dog showing, gardening and over-the-top Halloween decorating. (Want to see my talking Bucky skull?)

Favorite Halloween props added this year: Animatronic witches that were originally Mr. and Mrs. Santa Clauses. (Amazing what a little Fimo clay can do.) Last year, had to be the werewolves, which are really retrofitted wire reindeer. 

Favorite Halloween libation: Brain Tumor shot (peach schnapps, Bailey's Irish Crea and grenadine).

Role in the Vivi search: Blog tsarina.

Most vivid Vivi-search memory: Trying to interview Karin Goin in a tiny office in the Posh nightclub with the music booming every time the door opened, which was often.

Worst Vivi-search memory: Mistaking a concrete lamb for the wily whippet while on patrol with the infamous Tina and Rosa. (Hey, it was through a fence, OK?)

Previous column fodder at the paper, before she started the companion-animal beat: Nightclubs, electronic shopping (I got busted surfing eBay during a training session, so they had me cover it) and home.

Best interview: Ozzie Osbourne. Turned out I didn’t need the tape recorder — he was not only intelligible, but funny and real.

Worst: Gene Simmons. It was years ago, and I can still remember how obnoxious he was.

Favorite meal: Polenta and sauerkraut -- the pellagra diet.

Guiltiest pleasure: “People’s Court” reruns. Three minutes to Milian!

Most embarrassing thing my dog's ever done: Attempting to breed a sheep during a herding instinct test. He had instinct, all right.

Most recent Amazon purchases: “The Looming Tower,” “Potty Power” DVD.

Most disconcerting thing to colleagues: When I start discussing dog breeding on the phone. “Is she flagging?” gets them all twitchy.

What I was doing at Westminster last year: Getting an Award of Merit, just like Vivi (albeit it in the Ridgeback ring).

Worst thing about the blog: When people think I am blocking their IP. (Something I have done only once.)

Best thing about the blog: It is a testament to the very human — and noble — desire to be part of something bigger than ourselves.

Funniest email I've received about Vivi: “I saw the face of Vivi etched in a piece of toast at the Scobie Diner on Little Neck Parkway. I know many will not consider this a true sighting, but I think it was a message. Unfortunately, I was hungry that day and might have missed the only real opportunity to unravel this mystery.”

What the blog has taught me: Build it, and they will come.

With no verifiable Vivi sightings for months, here is a recap of goings-on in the still active search for America's most famous whippet:

Though the dog show at Cunningham Park in Queens was canceled Saturday due to tent-savaging winds and torrential downpours, volunteers manned a wind-whipped table on Sunday to raise awareness that Vivi is still missing, hand out cards and fliers, and sell T-shirts.

The phone number of a caller who phoned searcher Rosa Chile's cell phone from a restricted line twice to say that she had the "missing dog" but was reluctant to return her because her daughter was becoming attached is expected to be provided by Verizon at some point this week.

Some searchers are beginning to believe that Vivi has been caught. (It beats the other viable alternative, which is that she is no longer alive.) One possibility is the Brooklyn neighborhood at the terminus of the Interboro Parkway, which has not been well canvased or fliered, if such a verb exists.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Vivi sightings in Rego Park ceased after Pablo the Chihuahua was rescued and taken off the street.

Search coordinator Bonnie Folz confirms that search-dog handlers Laura Totis and Sam Connelly will be in the area this weekend to follow up on any and all Vivi leads and locations of previous sightings.

Reposted with permission:

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Vivi's volunteers send on this most recent flier:

Download vivicolorflyer1019061_still_missing.pdf

  Vivi volunteer Darlene O'Sullivan checks in with this report on one of the "Vivi puppies" rescued from the Queens cemetery where she and her littermates were born:

"Here's one of the cemetery pups with me. Her name is TYSON," Darlene says via email. "This was taken about two weeks ago at her owners Wendy and Paul's house.

Search coordinator Bonnie Folz brings us up to speed:

<<Vivi Update 10/10/06

Since compassion knows no breed, Vivi searchers who have pounded the New York City pavement looking for the wandering whippet have also saved numerous other lost and stray animals.

One of the latest is Duke, a 8- or 9-month-old lab-mix rescued by Rosa Chile, who persuaded his owner to give him up. Duke was living in a rusty crate in the backyard, with no shelter from the elements.

"He is truly a great dog," writes Barbara-Jean Landsperg, who can only continue to foster him for a very short period. " Housebroken.  Only chews his toys. Walks well on a leash. Gets along with other dogs, although when it comes to food he growls at another dog if they come near. We can take anything (food, chew toys, rawhides) from him with no problem.

Next up is  an as-yet-nameless Chihuahua who was the impetus for a Vivi call in Kew Gardens Hills last night. (Vivi volunteers were suspicious when the caller said the dog had barked at her.) If you're interested in this diminutive dynamo -- he's estimated to be about 2 or 3 years old -- contact Bonnie Folz at pawsativebf@aol.com.

The fifth in an occasional series of Vivi volunteers near and far.

Name: Barbara-Jean Landsperg.

Location:Valley Stream, N.Y.

Age: 56.

Occupation: Animal-care specialist specializing in avians, though she’s currently unemployed.

Animal buddies: Chillie, 8-year-old fawn Chihuahua; Maureen, a 10-ish Shiba Inu-Corgi-Chihuahua mix; assorted Congo African greys including Emily and Charlie (14 years old), brothers Thumper and Sammy (13), Chaps (the senior citizen at 30); Amy, a 7-year-old Blue Fronted Amazon; and two Blue Indian Ringneck Parakeets, Sapphire (17) and Indigo (15).

Temporary resident: Duke, a black-lab puppy rescued by Vivi volunteers Rosa and Tina. If you know of a good home for him, holler.

Thing people misunderstand most about parrots: “They think they are like dogs and expect them to be all sweet and cuddly. Or they totally don’t get it and think they are just a bird.”

What she was in a previous life: Dog groomer, for almost 30 years.

Worst breed to groom: Cocker spaniel. “They have heavy coats that if not groomed daily can mat to nightmare proportions. They take forever to dry and most do not enjoy being groomed -- and let you know it.”

Best breed to groom: “The Afghan hounds were extremely patient, and although they would probably rather be elsewhere, they knew they were gorgeous when they were done.”

Favorite meal: Round steak with mashed potatoes with gravy, spinach and a tossed salad.

Guiltiest pleasure: Tapioca.

Celebrity who looks most like her: “I heard Dinah Shore as an 18-year-old. Now ... ?”

What got her involved in the Vivi search: “I thought she wouldn’t survive the cold. Duh!”

What she does for the search: “I put up fliers, hang door hangers, do some feeding stations when needed, hand out cards and try to get the word out to all I meet, especially the people I see walking their dogs. I check out sighting areas, walk the parks and cemeteries in a leisurely manner, and maybe sit a while and eat lunch in hopes of spotting Vivi.” That's all after she has finished her job searches and interviews. “Vivi has actually expanded my job searches to Queens,” she laughs. “I do a lot of cold walk-ins.”

How she gets to Vivi sightings: Mostly buses during the week, riding shotgun with other Vivi searchers on weekend and night searches.

Longest travel time via public transportation: Three hours -- one way.

Best Vivi-search memory: "When [longtime Vivi volunteer and blogger] Nancy came to rescue me on a Sunday after I missed the last bus out."

Worst-Vivi search memory: Walking in the early-morning dark in Flushing and passing a shipment of cedar mulch at Home Depot that sent her into a severe asthma attack. “I took six puffs on my inhaler and stopped two times each block to Main Street, where I finally found some relief and the bus. I had no insurance and was praying to come out of it and not have to go to the nearby hospital. Whew!”

What friends think about her Vivi mania: “All mine are animal lovers, so they are rooting for us. Acquaintances and neighbors ... well, they think she's with someone and not out there at all.”

What she knew about whippets before she started searching for Vivi: “Loved them, and being familiar with sighthounds, I knew Vivi would be difficult. But never did I dream she would go that feral so fast.

What she tells people who ask why Vivi hasn’t been caught: “That she is in survival mode and very wary. If she is spotted even under her own terms, she bolts at the simplest gesture to entice her.”

If Vivi were a parrot, what kind would she be? “A cockatoo. They are more like juvenile delinquents — so smart they get bored. They are super special and want lots of attention, but give them their freedom to do as they please, and you are dust.”

Search coordinator Bonnie Folz checks in today to say that two more potential Vivi sightings in Rego Park surfaced yesterday.

The first call was from a grammar-school student who attends P.S. 175 near Yellowstone Boulevard. He said he saw a medium-sized, skinny-looking dog outside the school rooting through nearby garbage. When asked if the dog looked like a greyhound, he thought for a while and, presumably not knowing the breed, said the dog looked like a Dalmatian and was white and black.

Later that day Vivi volunteers Gail Thomas and Kathy McGurty-Weiser (aka “Kathy Bayside”)were driving around the area putting up fliers when two men noticed the Vivi poster on Gail's vehicle and said they had seen the dog just two hours before, in the vicinity of 108th Street.

While searchers would like nothing more than to belief that Vivi has resurfaced, Bonnie cautions overoptimism. "We cannot confirm from the four calls in Rego Park that this is Vivi," she says, adding that help is needed to post more fliers in the area to generate additional calls.

Since the departure of pet searcher Harry Oakes, Bonnie and the Vivi volunteers have been working to bring another tracker to the area to try and confirm sightings. Both Laura Totis and Sam Connelly have had difficulty clearing their schedules to come to Queens to search, but Bonnie stresses that bringing a tracker to the area is a top priority.

The fourth in an occasional series on Vivi volunteers near and far.

Name: Kathleen McGurty-Weiser (aka “Kathy from Bayside”).
Location: Bayside, N.Y., natch.
Age: 51.
Occupation: Currently unemployed.
Family: Husband Steve and an elderly Lhasa apso named Rosebud.
Hobby: Pez collector.
Her prize Pez: Jiminy Cricket, circa 1973.
Her dream Pez: “I would love to own the Universal Monsters from around 1965: Frankenstein, Wolfman and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.”
Guiltiest pleasure: Bingo.
Favorite TV show: “CSI” — New York and Las Vegas.
If the blog was a TV show, what would it be? “Days of Our Lives”!
Best Vivi-search memory: Receiving word of a sighting in Forest Park, and meeting the man who called it in. “While he was showing us the location, I had this strong feeling that Vivi was nearby, and I almost started crying.”
Worst-Vivi search memory: Following up on a report of a woman walking a whippet in Bayside. “I knocked on their door and a man answered. I told him why I was there.” Wearily, the man picked up his whippet, who was named Playboy, and pointed to the piece of anatomy that made it abundantly clear his dog was not Vivi. “Boy, was I embarrassed, and apologized profusely while backing out the door.”
Dumbest piece of Vivi advice she’s ever heard: “No idea is dumb — we have to consider all options.”
And the best: “Set up video cameras to constantly record.”
Her most vivid Vivi dream: She’s never had one. “Isn’t it enough that she is in every waking moment in my life — do I really need to dream about her too?”
How she imagines Vivi will be caught: “Unfortunately the only way I feel that Vivi will be caught is if she is winged by a car, and has difficulty walking and running.”
Ever met a whippet? Nope.
How she started searching for Vivi: On the day she came across this blog, she read a post about a sighting in Peck Park, which is not far from her house. “I grabbed a leash and a bag of biscuits and jumped in my car — and I am still doing that — because I thought for sure I would drive by the park, lure her into my car with the promise of a yummy cookie, and that would be that.”
Where do you think she is now? There are three possibilities: Someone has her who is not aware of her (strange, I know). She is in an area that has not been posted (strange, I know). Or she is … Sorry, folks, need to be realistic here!
What she’s learned about her home borough of Queens that she didn't know pre-Vivi: “I have lived in Queens close to 30 years, and before Vivi I only knew how to get to the Queens Center Mall, Macy’s on Northern Blvd, the #7 train in Flushing and the LIRR on Bell Boulevard. Ask any of the other searchers on my abilities on getting around. Ha!”