Search for wayward whippet called off
RICHARD PYLE
Associated Press

NEW YORK - The search for an award-winning show dog that got loose at Kennedy Airport was called off Thursday, but officers in the area are still keeping an eye out for the wayward whippet, authorities said.

Searchers covered the airport's nearly 5,000 acres over a 24-hour period but did not spot the dog, said Alan Hicks, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The 3-year-old whippet, formally known as Champion Bohem C'est La Vie and answering to Vivi, had won an award of merit at the Westminster Kennel Club show this week. The dog apparently escaped her travel cage on the tarmac Wednesday as she was about to be loaded onto a plane for the flight home to Southern California.

Vivi's owner, Jil Walton, told the Daily News she believed she had secured the travel cage properly.

"When it's cold, she's not happy," Walton said. "She's a skinny little thing and I don't know if she'll make it. That's what's killing me."

The search initially concentrated on marshlands on the airport's southwestern side after an officer spotted the dog headed in that direction.

Hicks said there was no indication Vivi had been stolen.

The dog, wearing a black sweater and collar and microchip with contact information, had been booked on a Delta Air Lines flight. The airline was investigating internally to determine how the dog was lost, spokeswoman Chris Kelly said.

More than 2,600 dogs were entered in the annual show at Madison Square Garden, including 25 whippets, a short-haired athletic dog similar to a greyhound. Best in Show went to Rufus, a colored bull terrier.

http://www.macon.com/mld/tallahassee/news/breaking_news/13890813.htm

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