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Sal's Updates On Moka Updated 12/27/97 - 11:00 AM CST |
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Sal's Updates On Moka Updated 12/27/97 - 11:00 AM CST |
Update #16
I've received a call from Save-our-Strays in Brooklyn. The person I spoke with said they received a call (caller didn't leave name) saying that Moka had been released in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn. This is near the Verranzano (sp) Bridge. The caller had the info that was on the flier, no more, no less. It's unclear if this is a crank or real. Is there someone that can check the shelters in that area and perhaps post fliers in the Bay Ridge area? Please let me know.
Sal
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Update #15 -
It was a quiet (sad) day with only one useless call and then a ray of hope. At 8 PM, I received a call that a wandering Sammy was found in Waverly, a community about 20 miles north of the mall where Moka disappeared. The caller said she was friendly & dirty & wouldn't allow the people (whose party the she had just crashed) to roll her over to check for a tattoo. I wanted it to be Moka so badly there were tears in my eyes. I raced to the home where she was but it wasn't her. Instead I found another purebred Sammy bitch. Chubby, dirty, strong, young and very friendly. I've taken her home with me and we will clean her up and check for tattoos or chips in the AM. She was wearing a brand new purple & pink braided collar, perhaps a Christmas present. We'll try to reunite her with her humans as quickly as we can. I can only hope that Moka is being treated with equal care & concern..... wherever she is.
Sal
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I'm sad to say that Christmas has come & gone & Moka isn't home yet. As before, I want to thank all of you for your wonderful support. The media coverage was extraordinary but at this point I am asking that we stop the effort with the TV stations. They sound pissed off to the point that they wouldn't run the story even if it was President Bill's new dog. Marita & I mailed 430 fliers to every shelter that we could identify in NY, NJ, & PA. I faxed a flier to all 44 Petsmart's in NY, PA, MD, & NJ to be posted in their stores. We will send 1000 fliers to the NJ Vet association as they have agreed to include the flier in their next newsletter. What I would like to do now is to concentrate an effort on reaching all the Vets in PA & NY in the same way. Perhaps their associations will give me a set of their mailing labels. If not, I will simply search Big Yellow, identify each individual as we did with the shelters, and send them that way. As I mentioned last time, I have reason to hope that I may be able to narrow the search to a particular area. I hope this will happen soon but it may not happen at all. Only time will tell. Marita & I hope that Santa was good to all of you and your fuzzies. You know that our warmest thoughts are with all of you.
Sal & Marita
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Update #12 -
Well I guess you can see from Debbie posts that the Carbon County, Pottsville, Bloomsburg leads all fizzled out. I've had more calls today but they were dead ends also. I did speak to a reporter at the Williamsport Gazette and I'm certain they were going to do a follow up story in their paper. I also spoke on THREE seperate occasions to a reporter for the Philadelphia Enquirer. They are going to run the story in tomorrow's paper. From all the questions he asked it could be half a page! We'll see. I have also faxed a picture and information to one of the NY TV stations. This one I'm not quite sure about yet. Mira was able to contact PETSMART and they have agreed to place a flier in each of their stores. They faxed the numbers to me tonight and I will do this in the AM. We are also sending, via s-mail, fliers to over 400 shelters in NJ, NY & PA. Some will be duplicate but they include everyone we could find. For reasons that I won't go into, I have a feeling that we may be in for a break.
Marita & I want to take a moment to say thank you to all of you. Your support has been wonderful. We are undeserving of this outpouring of kindness. I hope that we never have to return the favor but you know that we will be there for each of you should the need arise. Here's wishing all of you and your white fuzzies a Joyous Holiday Season & a Very Happy New Year.Sal & Marita
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Update #11 -
The AP story and the newspapers that picked it up continue to generate calls. Another communicator called me last night that she believes Moka is in the Pottsville or Bloomsburg area, wandering loose. This is to the south (50 miles) of where she was taken. I also received a call from someone that said she took a dog like mine to the Carbon County Canine. That was all of the message and my answering service screwed up her phone number so I haven't been able to call her and find out where in Carbon county. I can't find any shelters or animal control officers in that area. Eddie, the extortionist, still hasn't given up. He called three times yesterday and we were going to meet and then came the "okay doc it's all set but the guys who have Moka want some money up front". I told Eddie that hell would freeze over before he see a dime of the reward without Moka being in my hands. Conversation over. While I'd like to believe Eddie really has Moka, my brain tells me this is nothing more than a scam and I have to stop letting it get to me.
Sal Lawrence
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Update #10 - There are some leads....
The story on the AP wire has been "picked up" by a number of PA newspapers. Some have even run her photo. I'm still hoping that the story will be picked up by the papers in NY & NJ. So far this has been the broadest publicity that has been achieved and it has produced some results. Another local TV station also came to interview me today and ran the story on the 6 PM news and will do so again on the 11 PM. Believe it or not, according to them, we are offering a $100,000 reward for her return!!! I have called them & corrected this error. I've had a least 6 calls today with sightings. No one actually picked up any of the dogs they saw. Some were downright silly....."I saw a dog just like yours in a pickup truck" or then there was "we saw a beautiful Sammy coming out of a Petcetera with a man". However there were a few that are worth following up on. A woman called that she saw a loose, well cared for Sam (one week ago) in the parking lot of a Hill dept store in South Williamsport (80 miles west) I contacted the shelters and came up empty. There was a sighting from Hazelton (40 miles south) and I have #'s of 2 shelters to call tomorrow. Hopefully they will be open on Sunday. There was an interesting call from a man in Sunbury (70 miles SW) who said he saw a well taken care of Sam wandering in a rural area. He claims that no one owns a dog like this in his neck of the woods. He will go looking for it tomorrow. For some reason this raised the hackles on my neck. I think it's because it made me realize that she could still be wandering around ever after 12 days. Not a pleasant thought. If there is anyone in these areas that could contact the authorities, please let me know. Marita & I sincerely appreciate all that has been done to try to get Moka back. Please keep a good thought for our little girl.
Sal
Update #9 - I must have a black cloud the size of RI over me at present. Yesterday morning I was letting dogs out and after 20 minutes I called Ivory & Q and nothing. I wondered what tree they were digging under, so I get my boots and went out in the snow (in my robe) and start looking. Nothing. I get to the front yard and THERE IS A 50 FOOT SECTION OF THE FENCE THAT HAS BEEN DESTROYED. Some (probably drunk) driver of a Fiero GT (he lost his emblem and with many other pieces of his car) had taken out the fence and never stopped to tell me. I live on a side road off a heavily traveled highway. Naturally I thought the worst. To make a long story short, It took 20 minutes but I found Q a half mile away and when I got back to the house with him, Ivory was in the driveway wondering where I was. I know now that I won't live past 50 because this episode took another 20 years off my life.
Back to Moka. Yes, I was on TV last night. WBRE (NE PA) picked up the story on the AP wire and came out to interview me (Marita has stage fright). They were wonderful, too bad their broadcast is only local. They played up the use of the internet and the doubling of the reward. Damn it was really nice of them to do this. I've had maybe a call or two in the last couple of days. They weren't Moka. "Eddie", the middleman from NY, called Thursday nite and wanted to arrange for "the doc to get his pup back". He told me the guys who have her want to get her back to me. I told him to get me the tattoo number and call me back never expecting to hear from him again. Lo & behold he called Friday and (you won't believe this) says, "Well Doc I have good news & bad news. The good news is that the dog is okay. The bad news is that the guys that have her had the tattoo REMOVED because they were going to sell her" At this point I asked Eddie exactly what kind of a moron he thought I was. "Eddie" actually believed that I was going to send him money and they would then drop the dog off at a shelter. I told the moron that there was only one way an exchange would happen and that was face to face in a public place. "Eddie" said he'd get back to me. Somehow I doubt it. The other news was the call that a white dog had been killed on the Merrick Pkwy (NY into CT). This was Tuesday. No way to confirm it was or wasn't Moka, my instincts say it wasn't. I'm still hopeful that she will come back. My best guess (hope) is that she has been picked up by a caring family that doesn't realize a dog without a collar could still have identification on them. At some point they will see the tattoo or hear about a lost Sam with a tattoo and she come back. That is if the kids aren't in love with her by then. Sorry to have been so verbose. Marita & I are thrilled with the support that Samfans has shown. We sincerely appreciate all that has been done on Moka's behalf. Keep a good thought. I'm unsure of what else can be done at this point. One thing I would ask those of you in the surrounding communities is to check with your local shelters every few days. It simply isn't physically possible for us to do so.
Warmest Wishes to all Samfans & all their white fuzzies.
Sal & Marita
Update #8 - I had calls from two people today, one was a rescue person in NJ, this was not Moka. The other call was from Barbara Nord, a woman who has SEEN two Sammies in the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter (516) 785-5220. She has told me that she is not allowed to physically interact with the dogs and that the people that run the shelter would not call regardless if they had the info about Moka. I will call them in the morning and see if the reward will persuade them to check for the tattoo. Is there someone that would be able to go to the shelter to check on the tattoo if I cannot get them to do so? If not, I will drive out there tomorrow. Hopefully not on a wild goose chase.
Sal
Update #7 -Yet again I must say thank you to all of you for how wonderful you have been! No word as yet and it is now 7 days. Our regional PBS station continued to air the story & show Moka's picture last nite but it produced nothing. We have placed LOST SAMOYED ads in 5 additional papers today. We also snail-mailed over 200 individual fliers to the shelters (in case the faxes are poor) and to regional vets & vet hospitals in NY NJ PA & CT. (about 150 places). I doubt that traveling the expected (guessed) routes would be productive. There is something that might help though, especially at this time of the year. We MUST poster the malls with fliers. Everybody is shopping! Even if we don't find the person who has her, we might find their neighbor who could use a 1,000 bucks. We will hit the Crossings Mall in Tannersville tomorrow. There are lots of big malls in the search area. The Allentown mall would be a great one, even King of Prussia. What others are between NY & Scranton. These places attract enormous numbers of people from all over! Help me to identify them and let me know if you can get the fliers posted there. If you need fliers, e-mail me your address and the number you want, and I will overnite them to you. Another thought would be teachers. They could (operative word) reach a hugh resource of children. How can we reach them as a group?
Sal Lawrence (717) 343-2929