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. 

Day 5. A dark, dreary intersection.

Yesterday was 1,000 hours long, even though I couldn't get myself out of bed until 1pm. Norma came over with spanish flyers and made me get up. Just as she arrived I got a call from someone in Bushwick who spotted a loose black chihuahua on their block. We ran over there, knocked on all the doors in the building but no sign of her - I sat on the stoop of the building waiting to see Myrtle come out and run to me. No such luck, an hour or so later a woman living in the building arrived home and it turns out she does have a black chihuahua who she lets run off leash on her block.

Not Myrtle.  ;(

While in the neighborhood a bunch of kids said they saw a little black chihuahua run through the park a few days ago. Could it have been Myrtle? Thanks for all those who are flyering Bushwick just in case it was her. 

Staff from Animal Haven (thank you!!!) came out to pick me up in Bushwick and we decided to go look for myrtle near the feral cat hotel in Greenpoint. Maybe she was hanging out around there? We did find a man stealing a car, a woman in a dark corner who had been, "Hanging out there for hours." and many feral cats. Strange night.

In the middle of this got a call from Channel 7 Eyewitness news. They wanted to come out and do a story on our hunt for Myrtle. I met them at the park and shared the story with them. While around there I put out some cans of cat food, just in case she was still in Greenpoint, and hungry.

Got a call from someone out in Canarsie saying they just saw the news and 10 minutes before spotted a lose black chihuahua twice in their neighborhood. Johnny, a fellow Badass, picked me up and drove me out there. We looked for her until 3am.

I stood at the intersection where she may have been spotted, 105th and L, and everything was dreary, wet and rainy. I looked down each dark street. At that moment all of this felt impossible. She could be anywhere. Cold, hungry, scared. My heart felt so heavy.

This morning has been hard. Thank you for everyone who is still tweeting, posting to facebook, sharing in creative ways. Thank you to friends who are reaching out with kind words, every one of them makes a difference. All I could think to do is put together a big list of ways to help, so here it is, 21 Ways You Can Help #FindMyrtle. Please consider crossing a couple off, and sharing.

Hug your pets. Tighten their collars. Make sure they are microchipped (Myrtle was, thankfully, hope it helps.) 

Myrtle-a-thon: Tuesday 7pm

Ok, as the days pass, I get more and more worried. We need to do something  new- I'm asking anyone who has an hour to meet in front of McGolrick park at Nassau and N. Henry at 7pm and at 8pm on Tuesday Oct. 9th, so we can go out canvassing in shifts.

It's not a good idea to go out looking for Myrtle in groups (she's shy so it could scare her off even further), but going door to door and letting the neighbors know about the situation could really help.

RSVP and Share here.

Animal Haven is sending their glorious volunteers!

While I'm here, I wanted to let everyone know that it's important to not chase or even call her name. Just text or call and I will come for her! A stranger calling her might send her further into hiding.

This could be a really great way to meet your dog-loving neighbors, so let's make it a fun little adventure, shall we?

Please bring along a friend, & please share the Myrtle-a-thon plans!

#FindMyrtle Map

View myrtle flyers in a larger map

A map of the places Hilary and I have flyered. If you have passed out flyers, feel free to update the map! 

No news. Where is Myrtle?!

Continued to flyer my heart out, along with Elisa, Claire, Hilary, David and others. Trying to stay hopeful. It is cold. I want to wrap Myrtle up in a big blanket and kiss her baby seal head. Her toes smell like fritos. I miss her so much. I just keep thinking about all these things. Her snaggletooth, the little tattoos in her ears that she probably got when she was a puppymill mama. She can't wait to go to bed at night and if I let her she will sleep in until noon. When she's real happy her ears go missing.

I think the best thing we can all do is continue to flyer EVERYWHERE, ANYWHERE. And share on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, in real life, email.

Tomorrow morning I must go to the Manhattan ACC in Harlem. Wondering if someone in Queens could check the ACC there?

Here's a before and after of Myrtle – when I got her, her ears were all torn up and scabby, probably eaten by fleas. 

My neighbor handmade this doorstop so we could keep the door propped open for her. It says, "Come home Miss Myrtle." It is the sweetest little piece of wood on earth.