NOTE: On 8/20 I received an e-mail from the mother referred to in the following post. She was, to put it mildly, upset with my perspective. In the interest of not antagonizing her further, the following post had been edited to further obfuscate the identify of the family.
It is not my habit to "revise" posts, as I believe they reflect my feeling and opinions at a given point in time. I stand by my feelings - they are mine, after all, but can appreciate that hers were hurt. Interestingly, the breeder's post on a public list presented different facts; the following is my perspective on what I was told at the time it happened.
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Must be the season for group stupidity. No point in making a bad decision by yourself, I suppose...
A perfectly nice family from the midwest who hasn't had borzoi in many years, finds a breeder in another part of the country (known for not socializing his puppies), flies to said breeder, gets a rental van, picks up a puppy, and starts driving home. They get to Albuquerque, NM and spend the night. The next morning they load the van, take the dog out to potty - and the puppy bolts.
A few good things happen next... the mother calls this breeder, who calls NBRF, who alerts the New Mexico rescue person, who notifies all NM borzoi people, who in turn set the entire NM sighthound community on fire with the news. So far, so good.
Now, however, it starts to fall apart. The mother is paralyzed with shock, unable to direct the many volunteers how to help. Turns out the puppy (whom I shall refer to as "Rover") is NOT microchipped, and on a nylon slip collar with NO TAGS. Idiot breeder - how dare you release a puppy that isn't chipped, much less to somebody that shows up without a tag in hand?!? AND the puppy was on a flexi, not a regular leash. I HATE flexis, the handles make a ton of noise when they hit the ground, no wonder this puppy bolted in terror. Clearly, this is an inexperienced borzoi owner - the breeder should have screened and counseled more carefully.
Good news - flyers get made up and a reward is offered. The neighborhood where the puppy was headed is covered on foot, but nobody sees anything. Media outlets are asked to cover the story, plans made for a "lost dog" newspaper ad, etc. But - wait for it - the family is still planning to leave the next morning! How on earth do you leave town with the puppy still out there?? I do NOT get this?!?!? Turn in the rental car and buy a plane ticket for later in the week - it just isn't that hard to suck it up. Well, apparently it is too hard for some people.
So here we are, nearly four days later, and there have been NO sightings of this puppy. How exactly a 29", 70# puppy vanishes into thin air in broad daylight in the middle of a metropolitan area is beyond me, but he has. Volunteers continue to comb the area (and expand the area), check shelters, and pester local businesses. My fingers are crossed that somebody found Rover already, and took him in. Now we need to make sure that person finds out Rover has owners that want him back and will pay a reward to get him. But that could be a tough sell... no chip, no tags...
UPDATE: at 10:30 this morning, Rover was found - alive! Terrified and exhausted, but now wearing a collar with proper tags. WHEW.
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