By Adam Pincus
The manager for field operations for the city Animal Care and Control, Mike Pastore, said while driving around the eastern portion of the airport Tuesday that he believed the dog was alive.”I think animals are so resilient. They hunker down and look for a warm place like a truck or a trailer,” he said in a telephone interview. “That is my personal opinion.”The lost whippet, Bohem C'est La Vie, known simply as Vivi, won a coveted award of merit at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club dog show in Manhattan last week and was on her way back to her home in Southern California when she escaped.She was last seen running across the tarmac towards a swampy area at the edge of the sprawling 5,000-acre complex, just before she was to be loaded on a Delta Airlines jet. The 30-pound dog, a relative of the greyhound, can run as fast as 35 mph.Vivi's escape sparked an enormous search by the Port Authority Police that was called off last Thursday, but city officials and volunteers continued to look.Jil Walton and Paul Lepiane, Vivi's co-owners, announced a $5,000 reward for the 3-year-old champion and remained hopeful of the dogs return. They were listening to psychics who were providing advice on how and where to search for their champion, Westminster Kennel Club spokesman David Frei said.On Tuesday, an 11-year-old Rottweiler and a 2-year-old German shepherd from Maryland were brought in to search for Vivi, at the expense of the Westminster Kennel Club, he said.Reach reporter Adam Pincus by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
