Saturday Night's Efforts

To generate a sighting of Leo, a group of volunteers staked out the Shirlington dog park on Saturday night for about 4 hours. What we discovered is that there is a LOT of traffic all the way up until midnight along Four Mile Run and even bicycle traffic along the W&OD trail. So now we believe, even more than we did before, that the hours that Leo is traveling Four Mile Run are the early morning hours, not so much the late evening hours. We want to try a later stakeout, and we're looking for volunteers that can hang in there starting at midnight (for a first shift, at least) and going until 5am. We have a plan for how it, so please contact me as opposed to doing it on your own.

Although the sooner the better for this, we expect it to be Friday before we are likely to get people that can volunteer hours like that. If you can participate this coming Friday and/or Saturday night, please email me as soon as possible.

We also still want to speak with the jogger that saw Leo at 6am on the morning of Saturday, July 11th. We think that you did not reach Leo's foster when you called, but that possibly it was a wrong number. We'd very much like to get any more information you have about what you saw. Please email me.

Nancy

Status and Update

No, silence is not golden. No news is not good news, in this case.

Right now I'm just grabbing a few minutes to share a couple of photos from the feeding station, even though they aren't Leo, and also to say that there's plenty of activity at the feeding station but little to indicate that it's Leo. We haven't caputured him in photos, but we do have rawhides and dog biscuits at the site, which we believe are less likely to appeal to a lot of the other types of animals - especially the rawhide. And it's always gone.

I assume this is a feral cat, but hey, if you know someone looking for this cat, email me.

There was also a report -- very vague though it was -- of a jogger who saw a dog matching Leo's description this morning at 6am. We got no further information, including no way of reaching the caller to ask more questions. But we believe that he has seen this blog. So, if you are, or know, the early morning jogger who may have seen Leo, please contact me using the email icon at right.

Marshmallows left for this raccoon nearby might help keep him full and away from Leo's feeding station, but on this night earlier this week, there was no such feast for him.

Check back later today or this evening for an update, and please email me if you can spend some time this weekend helping look for Leo

Nancy

No Leo On Camera But . . .

. . . at least we fed a hungry black & white cat! Stray cats need to eat too, right?

Sure, it was depressing, but experience tells me not to get too discouraged even though that's the first reaction.

Thanks a million to those that are printing out the cards and handing them out or putting them on cars. I've got more areas to cover if you too are available to go out this evening, get some exercise and fresh air . . . or I guess polluted air to be more accurate since high traffic areas are the order of the day. Just email me - even if you already know what area you want to cover, let me know that so I can make sure it's not already being covered by someone else.

Post-July 4th Weekend Status/Update

Sunday we got the feeding station outfitted with a motion sensored camera, so soon we should be able to see if it's Leo that's eating from our feeding station. I'm not making any predictions yet. We need sightings to know if Leo is still in the area, and the 4th of July fireworks could have easily caused him to flee the area. But hopefully instead, he just hunkered down more. This particular holiday does hysterically increase the incidence of lost dogs, so hey, maybe he found a friend.

As for spreading the word throughout the tracking area, we are putting together a plan to utilize volunteers to hit shopping centers and flier the cars there with the smaller size fliers or business cards. Go ahead and contact me now (email icon at right) if you can give 2 hours one evening after work and I will have directions for you.

Now, fingers crossed that our monitors find pictures of Leo on the camera.

Update from the Friday, July 3rd Track of Leo

Yesterday's track of Leo's wanderings lead the tracker to where Leo's den is, which is great news. A feeding station has been established close to the den, and we have a few monitors for it. Hopefully we have enough but if you are able to serve as a backup, please use the email icon at the right to email and let me know if you can participate. We can give you a briefing on what it's all about to monitor a feeding station.

The den is not far from the Shirlington dog park, and the track showed that Leo does seem to like that dog park. He probably goes there at night when it's closed and there are no people or dogs around, so it's likely the dog scentsthat remain there that interest him.

During the tracking session, our volunteer spoke to a lot of people in the area and handed out information, and learned that the people in the area for the most part do not know about Leo, or who to contact if they see him.

So, we need to concentrate on the entire area of the track to spread the word -- with fliering (we need volunteer manpower for this), FindToto calls and/or a postcard mailer (we need funds for this). Email me to find out how you can help with fliering or funding one of the outreach methods such as www.findtoto.com or www.lostpetcards.com.

The tracking map has been updated with the July 3rd track. It shows all but the den and feeding station. Here's a narrative version of the track, starting from South Four Mile Run at Walter Reed Drive:

1) Straight (SW) on S Walter Reed Dr to King St
2) Left (SE) on King St to S 28th St
3) Right on S 28th St/Northampton to W Braddock Rd
4) Left (SE) on W Braddock, crossing under 395, to King St & Quaker Ln intersection
5) Left on Quaker Lane, down the hill to the 395 ramps
6) Stayed left to use the 395-to-Quaker Lane off ramp for southbound 395 travelers -- to get to Shirlington
7) Right on Quincy St, in front of the Village at Shirlington, to Four Mile Run Rd
8) Track ended there

Results From Leo Track 2 on July 1st

The Leo tracking map (see menu at right) has been updating with the track from yesterday, the evening of Wednesday, July 1st. With the rain and lightening, the track had to stop before running out of scent, but before stopping, it did show more wandering being done by Leo, as we saw before with his first track. He did leave the Douglas Park neighborhood he'd been spotted in, but the track doesn’t show him to be very far away – yet. It showed him moving south, toward and across Four Mile Run Drive, and doing an Arlington Mill Rd/Shirlington Mill Rd/Four Mile Run Dr loop before crossing back over and ending up outside the Shirlington dog park.

Sam made this comment to me by email: “It was so sad to see the track go up to the front of the dog park and wander around in front of the gate. You can just see him there, trying to get back with his "friends" Dogs who don't trust humans frequently make strong dog bonds and when they are lost they gravitate toward other dogs looking for a "pack" to be part of. However, since the dogs at the dog park and the dogs that are in people's yards have humans somewhere nearby, they hang around only briefly and then move on. When they find another dog that is strayed or a dog on a property that "appears" to be running loose (like those with electric fences) the lost dog may stay and "pack up" with them for awhile. ”

Another track is in order, and we are making plans for one that will start before the heat of the day rather than after it. Thanks for the donations that are continuing to come in, knowing that we are going to need more funds for the second track and then without delay, the outreach that needs to follow it. Remember that the 4th of July is coming up, and the thought of Leo out among those fireworks is harder than the thought of him out there when all is quiet and peaceful. Please check back for more updates, and continue to help spread the word.

Preparing for Today's Leo Tracking Session

As we are preparing for the track of Leo's movements this evening, with Sam of Pure Gold Pet Trackers, let's remember that from that track we are hoping to get an idea of what Leo's general location may be -- nothing is guaranteed, but with luck we'll get some direction about where we should begin anew to concentrate our efforts. We'd like for the track to extend as long as necessary (rather than being cut short like we had to with the last tracking session on June 12th because we had such limited funds). Also, we want to be ready in the new area, if we can get one, to put out a new round of FindToto calls, perhaps an ad in a local paper, a postcard mailer to neighbors, fliers and yard signs -- whatever we can do to make sure that people residing and moving about in the new area are aware of who to contact if they see Leo.

With that in mind, continued contributions via ChipIn -- which uses PayPal, by the way -- will be put to good use, and will leave us in a much better position than last time to act immediately on what we learn from the tracking session. Thanks for all your contributions so far, regardless of how small they may have seemed to you, and thanks in advance for new contributions, and for being a part of Leo's recovery.