Local Dog Is Missing After N.Y. Show

She’s a California show dog, and she’s lost in the marshes of New York.

After competing at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Vivi, a 3-year-old champion whippet, formally known as Ch. Bohem C’est La Vie, was headed home Wednesday on a Delta Air Lines flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport -- or so her owners thought.

“They saw her crate being loaded, and then they saw some airport person bending down to look into it,” said Bo Bengtson of Ojai, who bred Vivi.

Soon after, airline personnel boarded the plane to tell the dog’s owner, Jil Walton of Claremont, that the dog was not in the crate.

Walton said airport officials did not know when or where Vivi escaped.

However, Vivi was last seen in the marshes at the end of the airport runway, and the Port Authority dispatched a helicopter to help locate her.

“She’s calm, sensible and totally unflappable, but by now, who knows?” Bengtson said. “She’s running very far and very fast.”

Whippets are elegant, graceful hounds that were originally bred by the English working class to hunt rabbits and race for sport. The white and brindle dog was wearing a black wool coat and a collar with her owner’s phone number. She has been implanted with a microchip, which when scanned reveals an owner’s contact information.