Andy — the corgi whose disappearance nearly 4 months ago brought out hundreds of volunteers, spawned thousands of posters and sparked an avalanche of media attention — has made the New York Times.
Benoit Denizet-Lewis writes in tomorrow’s Magazine:
How far would you go to find your lost dog? Mike and Jordina Ghiggeri, whose 11-year-old Welsh corgi ran away in Westport, Conn., on New Year’s Eve, printed some 10,000 fliers, installed 14 night-vision cameras and 4 dog traps (in which they caught a dog that had been missing for 18 months but wasn’t their dog). Then they hired a pet detective and issued A.P.B.’s. “We’re not giving up,” Mike told me.
Kookoo, know wonder Andy ran away from home! He saw his chance and took it!
Wow, how cruel! “Born Free,” I’m sure you will be WAY out numbered in your feelings, especially when the volunteers and people that have been looking for, praying for and following Andy’s FB page for his safe return, find out about your comment.
Separately, and I’m sure I’ll open a can of worms here, but Andy took off due to the fireworks that were shot off downtown on New Years Eve. They are shot off at 7 pm and at midnight. Is this necessary? They are done in very close proximity to our homes which cause the windows to rattle, not to mention the torture they do on our animals. 4th of July fireworks are shot off at a much further distance from homes out in the sound, and no where near as close as they are when they are done on New Years…twice!.
Praying for you, Andy, come home soon.
I know the family whose house Andy was at New Years Eve and they live in the Coleytown area, close to Weston. It was not the fireworks at 7pm from the town. It was a private home who set off firecrackers – not fireworks – which scared Andy off. You will have to use another example to build your case (not that it’s not a valid one).
My reply below was to Born Free, but since readers replied to him/her my reply sounds as if THEY are mean. Not so. It was the original post I was replying to, and yes, Born Free was way outnumbered. Yes, we want Andy home!
Oh, this is the meanest response I’ve read on 06880! I realize that a non-pet lover wrote it, but the Ghiggeris, whom I don’t know, aren’t crazy at all. Every time I see one of the posters, I am grateful that there is someone out there going to any lengths to find Andy. Apparently Corgis traditionally travel in circles so it’s very possible that he is still in this area. And if a dog missing for 18 months was found in the dog trap, the next time it may be Andy.
Mike and Jordina, there are LOTS of Westporters praying that Andy will be found! And thanks for this update, Dan.
They sound like very awesome people. I really hope that they find Andy soon. I’m the ‘anonymous’ who had her dog found after 9 weeks, he was found hanging around 3 Bears Restaurant and was very far from where he lived (at one point he had been seen crossing Route 7 and another time Red Barn workers saw him; it seems that people would take him in and then he would get away from them to try to get home on his own). I know waiting for them to be found is heart-wrenching.
The signs have been a little excessive – even placed on stop signs. I wish the family muck luck in finding their dog. I also hope the company hired to place signs also picks them up when the campaign ends – no matter what the conclusion.
No one was hired to put up flyers. It’s all being done by people who love Andy, Mike and Jordina. But, they have stated they would also be taking them down once this is over.
Not to worry. We fully intend to take down all the signs once Andy has been captured, and have a small army of volunteers who are anxiously waiting for that day! Public awareness is the #1 key to success in recovering a lost dog – so while all the flyers and posters may seem excessive and may irritate some people, there is a very good reason for it and a method to the flyer madness.
amazing how you could find space to think of sign-clutter when the purpose of the signs is finding a dog that obviously means so much to these people.
Granite State Dog Recovery is more effective than all the dog trackers and “detectives” in the world. Do everything they say. They are remarkable. They are all volunteers. Glad to see Andy’s folks have connected with them.
https://www.facebook.com/granitestatedogrecovery OR http://www.granitestatedogrecovery.com/
There isn’t much more painful than a missing loved one and member of your family, and that includes a lost pet in my book. I joined the search for Andy because I have an 11-year old dog as well (who’s my precious baby) – and if she were lost, I’d go to the ends of the earth to find her. Also because Andy’s big soulful brown eyes and sweet face were staring at me on every corner.
Jordina told me she won’t stop looking for Andy until she finds him or has irrefutable evidence that he’s dead. I am right with her on that! All of Jordina’s, Michael’s and Team Andy’s efforts have paid off big – as we have had many confirmed sightings of him (three yesterday) and know the radius he’s traveling in. Now if we could just catch the little bugger!
Andy has over 3,700 friends on Facebook worldwide, who have very generously helped to finance the search and Andy’s ultimate capture. The support from total strangers for Jordina, Michael and Andy has been mindblowing – and NONE of us are willing to quit until Andy is safely back home. Looking for Andy has given many people a great purpose, so it’s rewarding in and of itself. It really does take a village to find a lost dog.
Amy, from one animal lover to another, my thoughts exactly.
I am an avid FB follower and supporter from the beginning and to the end! Ahrooo! …Dotti Mae
“Born Free” is likely still Living FREE – in mom’s basement.
Oh, I needed a laugh, Ellen!
Our corgi, Murrey, is ten years old today. he’s such a part of our family. My heart goes out to those who miss him. The community should be proud to have so many caring people.
I am just broken-hearted that Andy is still missing. I would do exactly what this family is doing. No matter what it takes. And praying that he gets found…my eyes are peeled every day. And to the kookoo who calls himself or herself Born Free, I hope you get lost soon and no one is looking for you.
We love Andy! I feel part of the Corgi Nation and I have a lab! : – )
In all seriousness, the family is devastated and all they want is their family back together.
People can spend their money however they please and I hope the process brings them comfort and closure. I have a problem with this “PetAmberAlert” thing. Amber was a real 9 year old girl who was abducted and murdered. The grass-roots efforts of a grief-stricken family and community that became a nationwide and in fact international child abduction alert bulletin system has been co-opted by a commercial website for lost dogs and cats. What a desensitized age we live in.
At this point the word is more than out about the lost pooch. I hope he’s safe somewhere, but his owners need to accept the fact that he may have experienced some tragedy and not made it and take down their signs. The signs are offensive to the aesthetic of the area; I’ve seen them on trees and stop signs on street corners from Fairfield to Darien. They are more omnipresent than campaign lawn displays will be shortly. We ALL know he’s missing, and wish you well, but enough is more than enough with the signs. Become a responsible citizen and take them all down, Andy’s had more than his 15 minutes.
As someone who lost their dog for 9 weeks before finding him, I really don’t think they should give up hope. Our dog was a well-indulged sofa dog; if he could survive 9 weeks on the run eating – as the vet later determined – road kill, from ‘garbages’…, so can this missing dog.
As for those that subordinate the importance of finding this dog to their dislike of sign clutter, you must be joking.
Andy is alive and well and seen daily by both ground volunteers and neighbors in the “hoods” he’s frequenting. The issue is capturing him. All who have seen him says he looks healthy and well fed, which is the problem – he’s not hungry enough to go into one of the many Have-a-Heart traps and enclosures that have been baited and set for him. Lost dogs in survivial mode (which is Andy’s current state – i.e. essentially shell-shocked with PTSD) make great use of “garbage day” and can smell cat food left out for feral cats from great distances.
The signs have actually changed content over time… the first was “Lost Corgi,” the next was “Still Missing” (as a reminder) and the third was “Recently Seen in this Area” (now that we know the parameters of Andy’s hangouts.) New signs have gone up as reminders for folks to be on the lookout for him – because over time people stop noticing the flyers. Many people have assumed Andy was either found or dead by now, and neither are the case. Also, not ALL people know he’s missing. I’ve talked with a lot of people walking in their neighborhoods (as part of our public awareness campaign), and even though they just walked past an Andy sign, they paid no attention and knew nothing about Andy being missing or seen in their area. Hard to believe but true. This is Fairfield County, after all.
Every single sign will come down in time, and will be properly disposed of. Andy has a very dedicated team of caring and highly responsible people working day and night to find him. Mike and Jordina are following expert advice from many sources, and it’s only a matter of time before Andy is caught and home again. Patience and understanding are kindly being asked of everyone in the Westport and Norwalk communities. Andy will be home very soon! No one wants that more than Jordina, Michael, Team Andy and his 3,700 Facebook friends.
Saw this and thought of Andy:
this is a great video.
I really do hope that Andy is found, but the probability of a good outcome goes down every week. As far as I have seen, the Andy sighting images are mostly wishful interpretation (similar to UFO images).
I do believe that there are too many flyers up now. I can see 4 from my house.
Also please, if Andy is found, remember to award the reward money. A dog owner in Westport recently reneged on a $5,000 reward offer after her dog had been returned.
‘Find Andy’, you really are, and unnecessarily so, The Grim Reaper. Has anyone ever told you that being so adamantly negative is defeating?
When my dog was found after those 9 weeks nobody in had their hands out for a cash reward. Instead, The 3 Bears restaurant that my grandfather frequented and where my dog was found handed us a ‘doggy bag’ for him to go home with.
Reading the progress that they are making, I’m guessing that Andy will have a similiar homecoming.
And, please, do not take down the 4 signs that are bothering you so much.
Seen this dog’s facebook page and it sounds like you know where he is so why do you need more sightings and why do more people need to know about him? You’ve got traps set up. Go away and let the traps do their job.
‘Find Andy’,
You are a bit too, and in this case unnecessarily so, ‘Grim Reaper’.
During the 9 weeks time that my dog was lost there were sightings that all taken into account placed him just where we ended up finding him. And nobody cared about receiving a cash reward for assisting us. In fact, The Three Bears restuarant that my grandfather frequented provided a doggy bag for us to take him home with.
If I read the above correctly, already efforts to locate Andy have reunited one lost dog with his family. I’m looking forward to Dan posting re. the same happy conclusion for Andy and his owners soon.
We only know the parameters of Andy’s whereabouts in a 3-mile radius between Westport and Norwalk and some of the paths he’s been traveling. We don’t know his precise location, and he’s presumed to have several different dens – but we have baited traps and enclosures in several different areas of Andy’s routes. The confirmed sightings have been, and continue to be, critical to the success of this campaign so far, because from them we learn where Andy is traveling, and without all the flyers, we would have never had those sightings. I never knew the search for a lost dog so sophisticated, so comprehensive, and so professionally directed, but it is. What we’ve all learned is an amazing number of techniques and methods to bringing these little guys home. Rest assured that the confirmed sightings of Andy are not wishful thinking (we even have doggie “line up” cards to positively ID him), and that Andy has survived and, by all accounts, thrived quite well so far. He’s clearly a very smart and resourceful little dog. So far, he’s been too smart and elusive for us to get our hands on him, but we will. There is no small amount of determination among all the members of Team Andy.
Now that I know how many signs were posted, I can see how this Corgi made his way into my subconscious. I actually dreamed that I found the dog in my backyard! Worried that I didn’t know where to call, I looked up at a tree in my own yard and saw the flier. I woke up and was rather disappointed that it had all been a dream. It seemed so real, though, that I was tempted to go see if there were indeed a flier posted in my backyard!
Its AMAZING how absolutely RUDE people can be over this. To some people their “pets” are their children/family. I think what Mike, Jordina and friends are doing is GREAT! If you have a problem with it dont look at the sign and keep your comments to yourself, put yourself in their shoes what if something that was very special to you dissapeared and strangers could help you find it…..you would probably do the same thing. You all have no right to judge them for that. Mike Jordina and Andy you are all in my thoughts and prayers. It breaks my heart everytime I see those signs. I hope for his safe return to you guys. I cant even imagine one of my animals being lost. You have so many people behind you and are always keeping an eye out for him! Good luck and Best Wishes!!! Cant wait to hear he has been found!!!
Let’s pick a day, July 4th? Labor Day? Halloween? And if he isn’t found by then, take down all of the trashy looking signs and chalk one up to the coyotes.
Wow, very classy. How compassionate of you. And courageous, too, to say something so shitty under the guise of anonymity. I hope none of your pets or children ever go missing, because what goes around may just come around with the kind of awful sentiments you’ve just expressed here… and put out into the Universe, I might add.
I believe that this family has every right to prolong the search for Andy (although the 10,000 flyers are excessive). As a dog lover, I know it would be tough to give up.
My problem is that the community is giving lots of money and effort to the search based on what are, at best, spurious sightings of Andy. They are continuously having “confirmed sightings” but I have not seen one image that is conclusively Andy. Before I would give money to bring in expert trackers from Nebraska and to install more night-vision cameras and traps, I would want more proof.
Anon Doggie – If you mean the Westport/Norwalk community is giving lots of money, that’s not the case at all. It’s primarily the worldwide Facebook community and Corgi Nation that have so generously supported the search for Andy with two online auctions to raise money for expert trackers, traps and special enclosures. They do so with enormous love and enthusiasm for a young couple and their missing Corgi, whom they’ve never met.
As for the efforts of local/ground volunteers and Team Andy, I wish I could say there are hundreds of them, but, alas, there are not. Maybe there are a dozen or so of us working to find Andy. Everyone on the ground does what they can with the time they have.
I don’t know where the NY Times reporter got the number of 10,000 flyers, but the real number is nowhere near that. A few thousand, maybe.
Finally, I don’t know where you would have seen any images of “confirmed sightings” of Andy, because it is Andy’s owners and perhaps a few volunteers who talk with the witnesses and view any images. While some folks have been mistaken, certainly not all sightings have been “spurious at best.” In the beginning, there were some incorrect sightings, but the recent ones have absolutely been Andy according to the ground volunteers who saw him.
Those of us who have given our time and money to the search for Andy do so as an act of kindness, goodwill and faith. No proof of Andy’s confirmed existence or whereabouts is necessary. Just hope.
Amy, they have posted night-vision videos on the Andy website. One did show something that looked like a Corgi’s head and ears. Currently they are showing a skunk and racoon battling over some chicken bait. If there were any “confirmed sighting” images, Andy’s owners would post them to generate more interest. I know that I would.
Oh, sorry – I didn’t realize you were referring to those pictures. I thought you were referring to the descriptions and cell phone pictures that people neighbors have given when they’ve seen Andy. Those only Andy’s owners and a few volunteers have seen, and they either are or are not positively identified as Andy.
As for the night vision videos that are posted on Andy’s website and Facebook, the tracking and scent dogs confirmed that the site where the Corgi’s head and ears were filmed was indeed Andy. He had walked that path. The skunk and raccoon video fighting over the chicken was posted for fun – since Andy did not made an appearance in front of those video cameras, which is why we’ve ordered more. Andy travels in a wide 3-mile largely wooded radius, so it’s hard to capture an image of him in one particular place.
The lost dog experts say that security/safety is a lost dog’s #1 need, even over food, so Andy stays hunkered down in a safe place most of the time – and there’s plenty of water nearby with all the streams and ponds in the area. He only comes out briefly to chow down on garbage and roadkill, and then runs back to his hiding places. He’s also believed to have more than one den, which makes tracking him down all the more difficult. But sometimes when he has come out, he has been positively identified and seen in people’s yards and rummaging through recycling bins. Andy’s a busy boy on garbage pick up days.
Some dogs are just exceedingly difficult to lure and trap. Andy’s turned out to be one of them. Hard to believe that of an 11-year old dog, but that seems to be the way Mother Nature intended. They go feral very quickly when they’re afraid and shell shocked.
Wonderful news today from Andy’s owner! From Andy’s Facebook page:
Great omen this morning….I ( Michael ) was driving this morning and saw Andy between 2 houses. He saw my truck driving down the road and took off. I saw him turn around and head behind the house. By the time I stopped and got out of the truck and went around the house, he was gone. This puts him in his pattern….. not long now!
I’d call that a super-confirmed, no-mistakikng-it’s-Andy sighting!