Cautionary Note for Sighters & Searchers

While one of the sightings learned about today had Tundie playing with a couple of neighborhood dogs, a couple of the people who called in sightings today commented on his ears down badly frightened demeanor.

If you see Tundie, please be very careful to avoid scaring him off! Some of the things to do include avoiding eye contact, refraining from calling his name or speaking directly to him, and no fast movements or movements in his direction. Don't pat the ground for him to come, or make smooching sounds. He may not run at your mere presence, if you are NOT paying attention to him, but he is likely to retreat if he picks up that you are paying attention to him. The ONLY exception is that if you are able to discreetly snap a picture of him with your phone, that would be immensely appreciated. This can help verify that it is Tundie that you see.

Best if you get low to the ground -- sitting, squatting, crouching, or better yet, lay down if you can! Put your back to him, and toss treats over your shoulder at him. These are actions that should not cause him to disappear again, and you can call immediately. We are not asking anyone to be the hero and to try to capture him. We are asking that you keep him in the area if you can do it with non-threatening behavior, and give his owner an opportunity to come as this will have the highest chance of success in pursuading him to come.

Thank you in advance for your help finding Tundie, and please leave a comment if you have other tips for sighters and searchers!

Sightings a Plenty!

Thursday passed without word of sightings, but the outreach is working because today, we've found out that there have been plenty of sightings -- every day since Tundie disappeared!

Just after nine this morning, the first call came in of a live sighting that put our boy behind the Herndon police station. This was neither the first nor the last sighting at that location. Like nearly all of the sightings so far, this is just yards away from the W&OD trail. The sightings have all been between Herndon and Sterling, much more in Herndon than Sterling.

Canvassing, fliering, and feeding stations monitoring and setting up followed the sighting since Tundie wasn't captured, as wonderful as this red hot sighting was. This resulted in more sightings. And late this afternoon (seems like evening since it was dark), Mollie was given a chance to lure Tundie out of hiding. Mollie is Tundie's Westie buddy. Here's how the effort went down:

"About 5:30 she started barking like crazy and a large shadow slipped down the path and into the woods about thirty feet in front of us. Pretty sure it was Tundie since it came straight off the bike trail -- not likely for a deer. Anyway, we just sat and talked normallyfor about an hour and said his name a lot. Walked around the trail talking quietly one more time and headed home."

So, Saturday morning starts with checking the feeding stations at day break, and then waiting and watching for Tundie to start moving when the sun comes up. Let's all send our most positive vibes and prayers for this to work! We know all about the snow forecast, and what a challenge it's going to be to even get there, but we're talking determined here! And to find the positive in the snow forecast, it might enable tracks to Tundie's lair to be seen.  Even better -- it will cut down on the automobile traffic in the area.
 
Fortunately, there are some great folks living and working in Herndon, and also volunteers from German Shepherd Rescue that are helping out, between calling in the sightings, fliering, and searching along the trail, but we can never have too many folks helping. If you can help, please leave a comment here or send an email to offer your help. The one exception is that we are concerned that a lot of people on site at the W&OD trail might scare him off, so for that, we are not looking for volunteers. Fliering and passing out business cards -- that's what we'd like help with. Download the flier, or contact us by comment or email for the business cards.
 
Also on tap for Saturday, weather permitting, is the possibility of a track by Laura Totis, whose own German Shepherd, Chewy, is trained to trail the scent of missing pets. The plan right now is for Laura and Chewy to come out to Northern Virginia to track for Colby, lost in Burke.
 
Stay tuned for developments. Hopefully, the reunion!

Have You Seen Thunder?

Efforts are under way to find Tundie!

Vets have been notified via The Pet Rescue; this was done Wednesday. Fliers have been emailed and posted along the W&OD, but a lot more of that has yet to be done. The Observer will be running the flier, as well. Several internet sites have Tundie listed, and in fact, one of the early sightings came in because a person who saw him went to FidoFinder to see if anyone in Herndon was missing a German Shepherd. Early efforts turned up three sightings in the first three days, and food has been left out where Tundie has been seen. The sightings have been mapped, which you can see at right. Thanks to German Shepherd Rescue for posting Tundie's information on their website.

So much to do, so little time! Can you help? Please leave a comment if you can!