Show dog searchers turn to psychics

BY LUIS PEREZ | STAFF WRITER

February 21, 2006

The physical search for Vivi has gone psychic.

With all leads running dry on the sixth day since the prized showdog darted off a plane during boarding at Kennedy Airport, the main search party has begun taking the advice of at least four animal communicators.

"They are telling us that she is alive and they are telling us she is warm," Honi Reisman, a close friend of Vivi's owners, said via cell phone yesterday as she searched the hundreds of heated cargo buildings dotting the airport grounds. "They are saying she's in a building -- but there are hundreds of buildings."

About a dozen psychics in total have chimed in, claiming to channel Vivi, with four of the psychics echoing the same information, said Paul Lepiane, Vivi's co-owner.

Monday afternoon, one of those psychic leads appeared to have paid off. Lepiane said dog droppings consistent with the 30-pound whippet's were found behind a cargo building in the northwest section of the airport.

"It's a huge breakthrough," said Lepiane, who on Sunday announced a $5,000 reward for the white and brindle dog.

Close to a hundred hours have already been logged by officials and volunteers searching for the prized whippet, whose full name is Champion Bohem C'est La Vie. On Wednesday morning, Vivi was on her way home from the Westminster Dog Show -- where she took a coveted award of merit -- when she somehow broke free from her crate before being loaded inside the plane. The latch on the crate was later found to have been broken.

Though she can run as fast as 35 mph, both Vivi's owners and the psychics think she is somewhere on the airport's 5,000 acres.

Animal telepathy is not new for Vivi's co-owner, Jil Walton. One of the communicators who is helping search for Vivi also channeled Walton's horse 10 years ago, finding that the animal once had an offspring who died, Walton said. The information turned out to be accurate.

"Some part of me says it's ridiculous to feel hope," Walton in a phone interview, speaking of the pet psychic, "but some other part of me says its real."

Reisman's sister, Carol, gave the name of one psychic helping out: Beatrice Lydecker of Portland, Ore.

Lydecker said Vivi was in eyeshot of lots of yellow equipment -- not much help in an airport littered with forklifts -- and was hiding under folded boxes. "She said Vivi could hear a person calling to her, but she didn't recognize the voice," Carol Reisman said.

Meanwhile, a team of volunteers will lead the first grid search of the residential and marsh areas surrounding the airport Tuesday.

In addition, after days of trying to obtain permission to use search dogs on the airport grounds, Vivi's owners have arranged to have two search dogs that specialize in finding their own kind brought in today to canvass the area. The Westminster Kennel Club is footing the bill.

Staff Writer Denise Flaim contributed to this story.