Authorities Call Off Search for Show Dog That Got Loose at New York Airport

Vivi, the wandering Westminster whippet, still isn't home.

Authorities called off a search at John F. Kennedy International Airport for the show dog Thursday after covering the airport's nearly 5,000 acres, said Alan Hicks, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The dog, formally known as Bohem C'est LaVie, apparently escaped her travel cage on the tarmac Wednesday as she was about to be loaded onto a plane for the flight home to Southern California.

Officers were still keeping their eyes out for the dog, officials said.

The dog, wearing a black sweater and collar and microchip with contact information, had been booked on a Delta Air Lines flight. She had won an award of merit at the Westminster Kennel Club show this week. The airline was investigating internally to determine how the dog was lost, spokeswoman Chris Kelly said.

The search initially concentrated on marshlands on the airport's southwestern side after an officer spotted the dog headed in that direction.

"I'm hoping that she has hunkered down somewhere, that she's terrified and she's hiding for a couple of days before she's brave enough to come out," the dog's owner, Jil Walton, told the Daily News.

Hicks said there was no indication Vivi had been stolen.

More than 2,600 dogs were entered in the annual 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.

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