NEW YORK — By Wednesday afternoon, Flushing was one big dog trap. Whole roasted chickens had been left out as bait. A greyhound named Hubbard sauntered around Kissena Park, offering companionship. An 83-year-old man strolled with his belt in his hands, ready to lasso if necessary.
Few mysteries have captivated New Yorkers like the case of the champion whippet who, after winning a prize at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, got loose at John F. Kennedy airport five weeks ago and raced into the city.
The search for Vivi -- full name, Champion Bohem C'est La Vie -- has drawn in the Port Authority police force, scores of ardent dog lovers, multiple psychics and an Oklahoma pet detective who, when called about Vivi, turned down a job searching for B.B. King's dog.
Now Vivi has begun to make appearances in Flushing, each one more tantalizing than the next. At 3:45 a.m. Wednesday, a man was walking his Doberman pinscher outside Flushing Cemetery when a whippet came to the cemetery fence and briefly touched noses with the Doberman before vanishing into the dark.
Searchers raced back and forth around Flushing all day. The dog's co-owner, Jil Walton, had flown in from California and was walking the woods, trying to spread her scent. The suspense became unbearable.
"It's like alcoholism," said Bobbi Giordano, an animal rescue worker from Queens. "You just have to find out where, when, why. It's an obsession now. I don't think it has to do with the breed, or that it's a famous dog or anything. I don't even think it's the money anymore. I think it's just the love."
Walton, who runs an equestrian center in Walnut, Calif., had dressed Vivi in a black wool coat for the trip back home from the dog show, where the dog had won a certificate of merit in the whippet category. The dog slipped out of her carrier before it was loaded onto the plane.
Vivi hurtled away down the runway for three miles, pursued by workers in Port Authority vehicles who clocked her speed at 25 mph. She reached the end of the runway and ducked through a fence into a marshy area as a Port Authority police officer watched helplessly from a distance of four feet.
The dog has been sighted more than a dozen times since she bolted from her crate, said Bonnie Folz, who has been coordinating the volunteer search. Vivi initially roamed long distances every day, but has begun to "tighten her boundaries," said Karin Goin, a pet detective from Oklahoma who traced Vivi's movements with tracking dogs.
