Fundraiser for missing dog show pooch

(New York-AP, March 10, 2006) (WABC) -- Supporters of Vivi, the award-winning show dog that fled from a travel cage at Kennedy Airport on the way home from the Westminster Kennel Club show are planning a fundraising event for the search.

The 3-year-old whippet bolted from her carrier at Kennedy Airport on February 15th.

She hasn't been seen since, despite extensive search efforts by volunteers, the Port Authority and her owners, Jil Walton and Paul Lepiane.

Admission to Saturday's "Vivi and the Strays" party at the Garden City Hotel's nightclub will be $10 dollars. Hotel Vice President Brian Rosenberg, who owns a whippet and a greyhound, says "every time I look at my whippet I just see Vivi."

The proceeds will go to the search for Vivi; money left over will go to the Bobbi & the Strays animal shelter, which takes in dogs found near the Queens airport.

A lawyer for Vivi's owners, Joyce Randazzo, declined to comment on the search.

The dog, which won a merit award at the Madison Square Garden show, had been booked on a Delta Air Lines flight.

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