Cemeteries, bunnies, trying to stay strong.

I got a lead that myrtle ran over the bridge from Greenpoint to Queens (down Greenpoint Ave) last Saturday early, early morning (thats when she was lost). That's all I have that's real right now. Biked around that area and there are lots of spots to hide. Called her name, kept expecting to see her. Nothing. I did see an entrance to the cemetery over there and went looking for her. Nothing but two frightened bunnies who hopped out of a hiding spot. A slight moment of panic followed by cuteness and then, of course, by disappointment.

My friend Annie snapped this pic, which I swear was not planned. I'm not looking for America, but my sweet little myrtle.

I think many people give up after a few days because this part is the toughest. It's like being at the airport waiting for a loved one to get off the plane and they never do and you're left there not knowing what to do next.

I think most of you know about my love for all dogs. I have always connected deeply with them. When I was little, during a bad point in my childhood, I had a guardian, she was a doberman named cushion. We would both curl up together and nap in her dog bed - it was a wicker basket. She followed me around and seemed to see me as a puppy. I felt so safe with her.

With Myrtle, I felt like her guardian.

myrtle aka chi-chi aka squirtz aka little tiny

Must keep moving, keeping positive, even in the face of some really rough obstacles. I'm heading over to pick up a Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue pup who needs a foster mom, I hope she doesn't mind an emotional, sometimes pathetic temporary mumma. Maybe this will help me to obsess a little less, I don't think it's helping me any more right now. This could take weeks, months... and I feel like it's already been at least 30 days since she ran away, even though it's only been just over one week. I won't be able to go at this pace emotionally or physically for much longer.

Please say another prayer for Myrtle, hang one more flier, post one more positive comment over on Facebook. I'll need your help to keep going.

From one dog lover to another.

Myrtle has been gone for so long, with no leads. If you have her, please, just drop her off at a vet or contact me and you'll get the reward no questions asked for keeping her safe! We know anyone who might have her has got to be a dog lover too.

It's Sunday, come on Tom Colicchio! Let's #FindMyrtle!!!

Woke up alone again. Someone told me yesterday that in the 1800s, royalty would own large packs of chihuahuas that would sleep with them at night and keep them warm. I think they just knew what it's like to wake up with a sweet little chihuahua and wanted all the chihuahua snuggles they could get! (Myrtle always gets up last, sometimes as late as noon. Always makes me laugh to hear her worm her way out from under the covers and then hop down to tap dance her way into the living room and ask for breakfast.)

(Quick story, last night I bumped into the amazing Tom Colicchio and gave him a flier. I was going to a wedding and went into Manhattan when the location was in Brooklyn! Perhaps I was meant to bump into him and he will be the one that helps us Find Myrtle?)

Desperately need more fliers to get out there – hopefully someone has Myrtle safe and warm and doesn't know there's a army of #FindMyrtle heros looking for her, so we NEED them to see a flier.

Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Bushwick and beyond, it's been a week and Myrtle is FAST so she really could be anywhere. Signs on and near subways, near grocery stores, in laundromats, gyms, rec centers, churches, delis, shopping centers can also help get this search in front of the eyes of the right person.

Download and print Myrtle fliers here. 

Pick up Myrtle fliers at  Norman and N. Henry- the entrance to McGolrick park, Cafe Grumpy on Meserole, and  Site in Astoria.

If you are a business owner in Bushwick or Williamsburg and can host Find Myrtle fliers, please let me know. I will drop some off!

There was a strange sighting of a dark, small black dog running loose - and scared out in Canarsie. So if you happen to live out there, it wouldn't hurt to keep your eyes peeled and put up a few fliers!

If you are following along and are not in NYC - here's a list of things you can do to help:

• Share images of Myrtle online: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, on your blog, to your email list, etc.
• Like the Facebook Page. 
• Donate to the Find Myrtle Search Team: Giving $1k to the team who has been out every single night, all night looking for Myrtle. They are volunteering their time and have a dog training business, I would like to help them. $500 has been spent on printing fliers, $300 on ads in papers and on Facebook. $200 on taxis to false leads. Whew, this is a costly endeavor! 
• Text the story and an image to your phone contacts. 
• Pray! Send good energy! As your dogs to keep an ear to the ground, those dogs talk! :)
• MORE ways to help here: 21 Ways to Help #FindMyrtle

Here is what I have next to me when I work, how will I get back to work without this little chi to consult with? She's really good at coming up with solutions when I get stuck.

Update: Astoria Chihuahua is NOT Myrtle

I received 2 calls about a found chihuahua in Astoria that was given to a woman in a building up there. I needed to find this woman and make sure she did not take Myrtle in as her own. I think I will become an FBI agent. My team consisting of Liz, Jim and my new friend Audres, and I tracked down 2 leads and knocked on a woman's door until she answered. She did lose her chihuahua a few days ago and it was returned to her, she said. "Let me go get her." She brought the little chihuahua over and it wasn't Myrtle. She looked at lot like Myrtle, but not my baby. The woman was in tears, tell me she would pray for me.

Check out Audres and his sweet, sweet pup. He helped me track this woman down so we could make sure this wasn't Myrtle. 

I am meeting the most loving, helpful and generous people during this whole endeavor. Thank you all. Dog people, you are crazy and awesome and I love you. Thank you all who are out there on the streets fliering – I hope someone is keeping her warm and just hasn't seen a flier yet.

I suppose we should keep looking in Greenpoint, Bushwick, maybe she even made it over the bridge to Sunnyside. Fliers are going to get her found, but also, how can I get in contact with all the industrial businesses up there in North Greenpoint? I tried to call and flyer around those businesses, left some in mailboxes, tried to talk to as many people working there as possible.

***However, there is still the story of a woman who told a pet store clerk in Astoria that she found a chihuahua and might keep it. I do not know the color of that chihuahua so, not a great lead.

Let's #FindMyrtle this weekend!!!

Please, if you aren't in NYC, keep sharing online – you never know who you could reach, a friend of a friend of a friend who knows someone who got a new black Chihuahua, a news reporter, an editor, maybe Myrtle has started tweeting? Who knows! Keep trying.

If you are in NYC, here's what you can do to help. This is a big city, I really need your help!

I have made a list of places that need fliering this weekend – please check it out and let me know if you have fliered any of these places/areas. You can request access to this Google doc, email me, or just leave it in the comments below.

On this list: churches, grocery stores, large shopping plazas, parks, bars, libraries, brunch spots, gyms, ALL SUBWAY STOPS. (If you want to help populate this list with places, that would be great email me!!)  Trying to think of places that have a lot of traffic over the weekend. I hope we can get a flier in front of someone who took her in, thinking she was a stray.

If you do not have a printer you can pick fliers up at Norman and N. Henry- the entrance to McGolrick park, Cafe Grumpy on Meserole, Eva's Play Pups at N. 11th and Site in Astoria. The fliers won't be there until noon today (Saturday) but here are the PDF versions, if you want to print your own. The small fliers are great for handing out to groups of people!

I want to keep us focused on all the neighborhoods surrounding Greenpoint – however, I think it's worth it to put fliers up in any neighborhood. Please update the list or email me if you do flier! (I would like to find a way to thank you when Myrtle is found!)

If you have heard or seen anything about a lost or FOUND chihuahua in Astoria, please let me know. If we can figure out if this was a black chihuahua the woman in Astoria found, that would really help.

Latest Update & Myrtle Smiling

Today was really hard. She ran away at 12:30am last Saturday morning, so in a few hours it will be one full week. (For those who are new to the #FindMyrtle team, I was away in Canada and Myrtle got out of her collar after been scared by a loud noise and ran – this was near McGolrick Park in Greenpoint.) When I have put up fliers and talked to people for 8 hours and have nothing in return and no phone calls, no leads, that's when I just turn into a pile of tears. The only thing that helps is when I see that someone else has shared the info about Myrtle or is out there doing something to help. The 2 things that really helped me today.

Thanks for the photo, Andrea!

Last night Astoria residents put food out for Myrtle, in case she was hungry. Someone told me there was a line of bowls of food and fliers out there.

The Gothamist picked up Myrtle's story! (I'm not reading the comments, I can only imagine how much people are hating me over there for owning a dog that is small.)

The latest news is this: a woman went into a pet shop in Astoria and said she had a chihuahua at home that she found and wanted to keep it. The woman at the pet shop advised her to take it to a vet or shelter  so they could see if the dog had a microchip. There was no chihuahua turned into the vets nearby – and there really is no shelter in Astoria.  The pet shop where this woman was seen is near Steinway and Broadway. She was described as short and chubby with long brown hair and an 8 year old daughter. Full story that includes a psychic premonition.

I have had 2 other people in Astoria say they heard about a loose chihuahua running around, so maybe it was her.  I don't know, but I have nothing else to go on, so I spent all day putting fliers all over Astoria.

Halloween is coming and I keep thinking about myrtle prancing around in her dragon wings as Daenerys' black baby dragon. Is she captured in the house of the undying?! 

I ordered stickers, since I keep going back to places I spent hours fliering and see that they are all torn down. Thanks to Nicole Licht for designing most of these flyers and graphics!! <3 Stickers won't arrive until Tuesday, so let's hope I don't need them.

I also keep thinking about how happy Myrtle is after she eats – she comes over and snuggles and kisses me and then passes right out, cuddled into me. Or sometimes she has one of her smiling fits – which I can never capture on camera and happened to get a video of the day before I left for Winnipeg. (Ignore my dog lady voices.)

So tonight I will put a game plan together, for those who want to help this weekend. Please check back in or follow the Facebook Page for updates. We need to do something that can reach people who aren't online or seeing the posters. If you have ideas, let me know in the comments below. If you want to implement any of these ideas, also let me know!

Astoria, the Pet Psychic and my god Myrtle is still on the lam!!

lovely graphic by nicole licht

I received a call this morning from a woman who said kids in her building found a little black chihuahua and were going to turn it in to a vet or shelter. She then saw a flyer for Myrtle and called me to let me know. This woman lives all the way out in Astoria! She said the kids went to school and she had no more information. I jetted over to her building to look for Myrtle and to flyer there while I wanted for the kids to come home.

Yesterday I talked with a pet psychic, who read me for free. She said Myrtle was with someone, someone who might want to keep her. She said to look out for the pet store with puppies in big glass windows, "You know the kind with the white shredded paper in the window?" Those were her exact words. She said this was a key place.

A friend and Myrtle hero started a list of all the vets and pet stores in Brooklyn and Queens and have been calling, visiting, faxing, emailing them all (along with her help!). I know most of these pet stores and none sell puppies or have puppies in the window.

While waiting for the kids to come back home I pulled up my google maps and started heading to all the vets and pet stores in Astoria.  The first corner I went to, I pulled out my Myrtle flyer and started to tape it up when I saw right next to it, was .. a Myrtle flyer! I started to cry. How generous and kind people can be. I needed this reminder in my life. I'm grateful for all who are helping and sharing. Even if it turns me into a blubbering fool in public.

I continued walking down Steinway I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a pet store that wasn't on Google maps or listed anywhere online.

The Discount Pet Shop on Steinway (near Broadway)  P.S. Rescue 4 life!!!!

My heart jumped – I darted across the street and went inside. I was greeted by a wall of puppies, on sweet little baby brown chihuahua stared at me and wagged its tail. I told the woman working there about my search for my lost black chihuahua. Her eyes grew and she said, "Yes! A woman came in here. She was in on Monday I think. She said she had found a chihuahua and didn't know what to do with it." 

"Really?!" I told her about the pet psychic. I pleaded with her to give me all the info she had. 

"She was short, a spanish woman with long brown hair. She had a little girl with her about 8 years old. I told her to take the dog to the vet around the corner, so they could scan her for a microchip. She said she might just keep the dog."

The woman didn't have the chihuahua with her, so we don't know if this was Myrtle. Any lead is good right now. Waiting for any kind of information is painful. This was giving me something to do. 

Before I left the woman said to me, "You know. I went to a psychic over the summer. She said I would meet the love of my life this year. I told her she was crazy, that I was married already. And guess what, as of a few weeks ago, I'm divorced."

"Let's both hope we find what we're looking for." I told her. 

I went to all the vets in that area and none have seen Myrtle. No chihuahua has been turned in. I suspect someone has Myrtle and they are holding on to her. They love her, she is lovable. 

I just wish I knew for sure – I could deal with that. I could deal with knowing she was safe, warm and being loved. Not knowing if she is out in the cold at night, that is what hurts so much.