NEW YORK (AP) – The award-winning whippet who escaped from her travel cage at Kennedy Airport bolted across tarmac at 25 mph as workers chased her on foot and in three cars, her breeder said Friday.

One officer was within feet of her when she nosed into a marsh area and disappeared.

The 3-year-old whippet, known as Champion Bohem C’est La Vie or Vivi, took off as she was about to be loaded onto a plane for the flight home to California on Wednesday. She had been in New York for the Westminster Kennel Club show, where she won an award of merit.

Vivi was still missing Friday, her breeder, Bo Bengtson, told The Associated Press.

Airport workers had pursued her in three cars, clocking the dog’s speed at 25 mph, Bengtson said.

“They almost caught her,” Bengtson said. “It started out perfectly.”

A police officer from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey got within four feet of her but couldn’t call her because he didn’t know her name, owner Jil Walton said Thursday. Walton said she thought the travel cage had been properly secured.

Authorities called off the official search for Vivi on Thursday, although officers in the area are still keeping an eye out for the runaway.

Dog experts say whippets, athletic dogs similar to greyhounds, are known to run off and hide for as long as four days before re-emerging.

Walton and co-owner Paul Lepiane are offering an unspecified reward for Vivi’s return. The show dog, Lepiane said, is valued between $15,000 and $20,000.

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