Recently I puzzled over these posters that appeared in the vicinity of my workplace (these two were taped to one another around a lamppost, and there were at least a few more). Why would someone go to such an effort to reclaim their pet two years after it went missing? I don't have an answer I can back up with facts, but being halfway through the complete Sherlock Holmes, I endeavoured to reason it out. First, some observations:

• The posters went up, I believe, in mid to late April. They're now in pretty bad shape and no attempt has been made to replace or fix them.
• Judging by the handwriting in the vital stats area, not to mention all the other differences, it seems safe to say that these two posters were made by more than one person.
• The text that has been blacked out on both posters said essentially that the dog could also be brought to a specified police precinct, which I believe was the closest one for our neighborhood of Mott Haven.
• A peculiar feature is the perfect white background and poses in the pictures of the dog. These would have to be either lucky shots or the result of Photoshopping, both unlikely to appear on posters like this. This leads me to think they were either taken off the web or copied from a book. I'm inclined toward a book because I don't see any of the pixelation that would be likely when printing web images at this size. Cursory Googling didn't turn them up.
• Googling did turn up this listing at PetLocator. The presence of the pictures points away from my book hypothesis, as its unlikely someone would go the trouble of scanning them in as opposed to just taking them off the web. It doesn't show when it was posted, but the Internet Archive has the page showing up on Feb. 18, 2005. Also, seeing the pictures on there makes me rethink the likelihood that the owner might have used Photoshop to erase the background in them.

And some possible explanations:

• The impending Mother's Day anniversary of the loss inspired a renewed sadness in one of the pet's owners, and either that person, or others close to them, made the posters more in an attempt to feel less sad and guilty than out of any sincere hope of finding the pet.
• The owners got a tip that the pet might have been seen recently, renewing their hope.
• This is part of a larger, consistent campaign to recover the pet that I haven't been otherwise aware of. This supported by the PetLocator page, but contraindicated by the poster stating that the dog was lost on Lincoln Ave., that being where the posters were put up. It's unlikely they've been fanning out their poster distributions from where it was lost for 2 years.

That's about as far as I can take it. Anyone?