LEWISTON - Three-year-old Gavin Raymond made his simple plea, wearing a sandwich board sign his grandmother crafted.

It read, "Please Return Maggie."

Beside the boy, lost dog signs and too-cute Yorkie photos were stuck to a utility pole at the corner of East Avenue and Russell Street, where little Maggie Mae vanished a day before.

"How much do you miss her?" grandmother Jane Brissette asked.

"Big much," Gavin said.

Further down East Avenue, Brisette's minivan sat parked in her sister-in-law's driveway. A message on the windows offered a $200 reward.

"I'd be glad to pay $200 to get her back," Brissette said. "I feel so guilty." After all, Maggie isn't hers. She's owned by her sister-in-law, Mary Ann Brissette.

The two women were cleaning together at Mary Ann's home about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, when Jane let the dog outside. When she last saw her, Maggie was tied up, wearing a collar with a leash attached.

"She's just a little peanut," Jane said. "She's so cute."

Less than 10 minutes later, when Jane returned to bring her inside, Maggie had wriggled from her collar and run away.

A passer-by, Shelley Sturtevant, then stopped with news that she saw someone take the dog away.

Little Maggie had been running in the street, stopping traffic, when a dark-haired woman in a white sedan pulled up and hopped out of her car, Sturtevant said.

The woman was wearing maroon hospital scrubs, decorated with doggies and dog bones, Sturtevant said.

"This lady comes running across the street, picks up the dog and cuddles it," she said. Then she hopped in her car, still holding the dog, and drove away.

"It was like it was her dog," said Sturtevant, who watched the whole thing.

Sturtevant wasn't alarmed until she drove down East Avenue and saw Jane and Mary Ann calling for Maggie.

They kept calling for hours.

Mary Ann never slept. The little dog was a Christmas gift two years ago.

"It's like she's my child," Mary Ann said. After dark, she and Jane created the signs. On Thursday morning, she called police.

Then, she began making the rounds of animal shelters, vets offices and nursing homes: anywhere that might have seen Maggie or the woman in the doggie scrubs.

Mary Ann and Jane returned to the corner on Thursday afternoon, hoping that the woman with her dog goes by every day as part of a work commute.

Maybe she was just trying to help, Mary Ann said.

On the other hand, dog napping is rare, police Lt. Jim Minkowsky said.

"It's not a common occurrence," he said.

Most often, somebody steals a pet or threatens to take one as a way of hurting somebody they know, he said.

Folks who pick up strays usually turn up at a shelter or the police station, he said.

Jane hoped the signs would reach whoever took Maggie.

"We're hoping somebody develops a conscience," Jane said.