Marvin, the missing dog from Mexico, is still out there, somewhere.
The German shepherd-greyhound mix who escaped a car accident on Interstate 95 near Medway on Sunday has not been seen since the night of the accident despite a flood of social media chatter on Monday and an ongoing search effort, said Sarah McLaughlin, a Lincoln resident whose brother is Marvin’s owner.
“We are pretty anxious,” McLaughlin said Tuesday. “We are worried about him. Coming from being a street dog in Mexico, we are hoping that he has some survival skills, deep down, and will get through this.”
McLaughlin’s brother and Marvin’s owner, folk singer Jacob Augustine, was driving north on I-95 near mile marker 239 when his minivan hit black ice and rolled over at about 1 p.m. Sunday.
Marvin was ejected from the vehicle as it rolled and, to judge from the bloody paw prints in the snow, suffered some injuries in the crash. Augustine, who lives in Stockholm, in Aroostook County, was badly bruised, he said.
A short-haired dog rescued from a shelter in Cozumel, Mexico, Marvin hates cold weather, and Augustine and McLaughlin fear that his lack of a thick coat and the injury might lead to his doom.
The snow that fell Monday, combined with Tuesday’s snow and rain, have not made the brother and sister feel any better about Marvin’s prospects, McLaughlin said.
“We haven’t heard anything from anybody about him, and the roads are really bad, so Jake didn’t want to risk it on the road by searching for him,” she said.
McLaughin’s Sunday Facebook post announcing that Marvin was missing had been shared 1,551 times of midafternoon Tuesday. Maine Lost Dog Recovery, a Facebook page with about 43,000 followers, has also posted a notice about Marvin, and McLaughlin said she plans to post a paper version of that notice in the Medway area.
McLaughlin has also sought some professional help in the search. She tried to contact a Medway resident who runs a lost-dog recovery service, McLaughlin said, but he was unavailable.
Area animal shelters have been notified, she said.
Marvin was last seen alongside the highway near the “239” mile marker at dusk on Sunday, but ran into the thick woods off the highway after friends of Augustine approached him, they said.
The searchers left food and clothing of Augustine’s out along the highway to feed Marvin and keep his spirits up. McLaughlin said she hopes the dog is still in the area.
A dog rescue worker told her that Marvin, who is also called Marvy and will follow commands spoken in Spanish, will likely seek shelter through the bad weather and not be as visible along the highway.
“He probably won’t resurface for a couple of days,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin asks anyone who has seen Marvin to call her at 207-290-3457.
She asks people near the accident site to check their sheds, garages and other structures, as Marvin might have taken shelter in them. He is not wearing the orange collar seen in pictures of him, McLaughlin said.
Anyone who approaches Marvin should do so gingerly, she said, as he is wary of strangers, especially after the accident.
“We just want to get him home,” McLaughlin said.
