Vivi the whippet show dog remains missing four months after she escaped from a cage at JFK airport in New York. Reports from those who may or may not have sighted Vivi continue to this day, but she appears to have seriously pulled off that old Houdini.
At first thought it might seem as if Vivi might have met with some terminally unfortunate circumstance. But a host of reasons exist as to why Vivi may be alive rather than dead.
Perhaps someone doesn’t read the paper or the Internet or pay attention to the TV news. There are people like that you know.(Sometimes I wish I was one of those people.)Let’s say this fine-looking but tuckered-out whippet came up to the door of some person who fed Vivi some scrumptious groceries and the dog decided to stay on for awhile.
A slight possibility does remain that Vivi was dognapped and that the culprits are just waiting for the right time to spring the ransom request on Vivi’s folks. That doesn’t seem that likely, however, given that four months have already passed.
Another scenario that came to me was that Vivi may have struck out on her own for home in California. Dog walkabouts aren’t all that uncommon. Some dogs have been known to take off from home and return years later. There even have been instances reported of dogs traveling a few thousand miles home.
Dogs are only one of many animals with an uncanny homing instinct. I have never seen any explicit scientific information as to how animals find their way home. Some speculate it has something to do with the Earth’s magnetism, or the ability for animals to use celestial navigation. Others even believe dogs and other animals have a psychic ability that will lead them home.
Interestingly enough, scientists found earlier this year that homing pigeons just follow the roads on short trips back and forth from home. These scientist found this out after they placed global positioning system devices on the birds and studied their pathways.
Who knows, maybe Vivi just wanted to see some of the country rather than fly over it in a little box. I think many of us might identify with such a desire. She may be trotting along down Route 66 as we speak. I’d like to think she was anyway. Be safe Vivi.