Robyn Flynn holds her dog, Moose, while talking to Sherm's Food4Less customers on a recent afternoon. Flynn and her partner, Sarah Long (in camouflage jacket) say the dog escaped through a hole under their Central Point fence Oct. 7 and was later taken. Reports of the dog being seen have trickled in almost daily.

Eleven weeks since their 2-year-old Alaskan Klee Kai went missing, Central Point residents Robyn Flynn and Sarah Long have done everything imaginable to bring their dog back home.

From late-night stakeouts on the Bear Creek Greenway and offering a $2,000 reward, to stashing an Apple AirTag in a bag of donated dog food and perusing security footage from local stores, the women never imagined the lengths to which they would go to find their beloved dog Nina.

Nina is described as a 12-pound, white-and-grayish black “mini Husky” with bright blue eyes. She wandered away two months ago after digging a hole under the fence surrounding her family’s home.

“It was the morning of October 7. We have a little dog door, so they come and go as they please … Nina was our little hole digger,” Flynn said.

“She used to just go to the front yard, then she would travel to the neighbors,” Flynn added. “This time, the neighbor had left a gate open.”

The little hole-digger is microchipped, but Flynn said Nina “Houdinied out of her collar” just before going on the lam.

During the first week the dog was missing, the women searched by car and on foot, posted on social media and even set a live trap using a whole rotisserie chicken as bait.

They went so far as to urinate in areas the dog was seen, in case Nina was lost, and debated setting up night-vision cameras.

They realized Nina had likely been scooped up — no longer running loose — when they got a report of a homeless man seen with a dog matching Nina’s description strapped to a shopping cart and being pushed toward the Bear Creek Greenway.

Daily sightings, often with photographic evidence, have placed the pup with different men and women all over Medford, including at the Royal Crest Motel on East Barnett Road, inside the Barnes & Noble bookstore and across the westside.

“Every time we get a sighting, we go to that location. She was seen at the Minute Market by The Wharf restaurant. The guy told the cashier that he needed to carry her because she would wiggle out of her collar, which is exactly what Nina always does,” Flynn said.

In their search, they’ve created a network of found friends and fellow dog lovers, including postal workers, garbagemen and Uber drivers keeping a lookout for Nina.

Leaving no stone unturned, Flynn and Long have posted, passed out and mailed thousands of fliers. They post updates in the Pet Finder for Southern Oregon (Lost and Found Only) public Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/PetFinderforSouthernOregon

When Flynn and Long learned that dogs are often stolen for use as breeding stock, they posted vet records on the Facebook group proving Nina is spayed. They also have a dedicated tip line at 541-531-5328 — community members often call just to see if Nina has been found — and they’ve hired a dog tracker, an investigator and a pet psychic.

They regularly check deceased dogs on roadways. They’ve held late-night stakeouts near apartment complexes and campgrounds. Flynn, a CNA for a hospital cardiovascular ICU, has taken a leave of absence from work to manage the search. For Thanksgiving, the women volunteered at a community feed, greeting hundreds of homeless and looking out for the dog.

While a steady stream of dog photos has been sent to Flynn and Long, only a small percentage appear to be Nina.

“A West Medford guy named Damien — he’s got an Alaskan Klee Kai, fluffier than Nina but the same colors and with brown eyes instead of blue — somebody almost fought him and took his dog,” she added.

“He’s joked about getting him a vest (for the dog) that says, ‘Not Nina!'”

They’ve found other missing dogs, which they’ve reunited with their owners.

“We adopted a dog, being sold, that was reported as a possible Nina sighting,” Flynn said of a new dog, a mini Husky named Fennec.

“She was in a bad situation, so we adopted her,” Flynn added.

More recently, Nina was reportedly seen at Sherm’s Food4Less on Biddle Road in Medford. Flynn and Long stood outside, with their other dog Moose in a carrier, passing out fliers. Some customers accepted and others — appearing suspicious — declined. Offering a glimmer of hope, some gave a knowing glance or commiserated with the couple.

“We’re all keeping an eye out already,” said Medford resident Sarah White, exiting the store with a cart of groceries.

“I went a month-and-a-half without my dog. I posted all over social media and finally got it back. … Everybody is looking for your dog… so don’t give up hope,” she said.

Days after being at Food4Less, Flynn said she received proof that the community is paying attention.

“We got a call about a ‘panhandling woman outside Food4Less, with a dog in a pet carrier,'” Flynn said with a laugh. “I was the panhandling woman with Moose in my papoose … passing out fliers for Nina.”

Despite countless tears shed, the women try to focus on the community support they’ve received and rely on humor as a coping mechanism.

“We’ve been down the greenway at all hours. Hawthorne Park is definitely the keeper of secrets. We’ve gone down there in the middle of the night, and we’ve done some sketchy, sketchy s—, all in the name of bringing Nina home,” Long, an ICU nurse, said.

“We’ll be down on the greenway and see an egret or herring and we’re like, ‘Oh my god, it’s so beautiful.’ Then we realize we’re in a dumpster wasteland stepping over syringe caps.”

Flynn said the couple is fairly certain whoever has Nina realizes, by now, that she is being looked for.

“Whoever has her, there’s no way they don’t know. Unless they’re somewhere, way out, living without electricity. Just the basic steps of taking a found dog to the vet to be scanned, they would have found out she was missing,” said Flynn.

The women reiterated that the dog cannot be bred for puppies, is sorely missed and that they’re offering more of a reward than the dog could be sold for.

“Until we get her back, this is just my life now,” Long said, standing outside Food4Less with a stack of fliers.

“I’m either working, or I’m looking for Nina, or I’m talking to people about looking for Nina,” she said. “Looking back, it just never dawned on me that somebody would just keep our dog, especially if we put the word out that she was missing and that we wanted her back.

“We’re not going to stop until we have her back. … We can’t stop looking. She’s our family,” Long said.

Flynn agreed, noting about the Husky: “No pun intended. I feel like we’re permanently running an Iditarod.”