Show Dog Searchers Fetch Crystal Ball

With few physical clues to the whereabouts of an escaped show dog, the hunt for the award-winning whippet has entered the spiritual realm, according to a media report.

About 12 psychics are counseling searchers as they check the heated cargo buildings at John F. Kennedy Airport where Vivi escaped from a travel cage, Newsday quoted the dog's co-owner Paul Lepiane as saying Tuesday.

"They are telling us that she is alive and they are telling us she is warm," said Honi Reisman, a friend of the dog's owners. "They are saying she's in a building, but there are hundreds of buildings."

According to breeder Bo Bengtson, the animal bolted across the tarmac last week at 25 mph as workers chased her on foot and in three cars. The 3-year-old whippet, whose full name is Champion Bohem C'est La Vie, nosed into a marsh area and disappeared.

The dog's escape came days after winning an award of merit at the Westminster Kennel Club show, America's most prestigious dog show.

Lepiane said dog droppings consistent with the 30-pound whippet's were found Monday behind an airport cargo building. He has announced a $5,000 reward for Vivi.

The search for Vivi was called off last Thursday, but officers in the area said they would continue to "keep their eyes open" for the wayward whippet.

The search initially concentrated on the marshlands on the airport's southwestern side after an officer spotted the dog headed that direction. Hick said there was no indication that Vivi had been stolen.

The dog, wearing a little black sweater and collar and microchip with contact information, had been booked on a Delta Air Lines Inc. flight. Atlanta-based Delta said it had been working with local authorities to find her.

More than 2,600 dogs were entered in the show at Madison Square Garden, including 25 whippets, a short-haired athletic dog similar to a greyhound. Best in Show went to Rufus, a colored bull terrier with an egg-shaped head.

Best in Show went to Rufus, a colored bull terrier.