But the little brown dog is not forgotten by her guardian, Bill Whiting, nor by the thousands of people who have rallied to his side following stories in the Daily News about Edna's disappearance and her torture over the phone by extortionists making ransom demands.

On Wednesday at noon, under the banner of "Justice for Edna," the 57-year-old Whiting plans to have a news conference and rally in front of Verizon's office at 1717 Arch St.

Verizon is targeted because it took the company a week to begin to comply with a police search warrant for phone records that might have led to the extortionists.

And getting the search warrant took police a stunning five days.

Whiting told me that he will call on local Verizon president William B. Petersen to come down to receive a petition calling for the telecommunications giant to fill police requests faster and to stop charging police for the service. More than 5,000 people from around the world signed the online petition, which runs 839 pages.

At the rally, Whiting said he will call on Verizon "to take an active, cooperative role in helping to keep their own customers, communities, neighbors and animals safe." Whiting, who works for the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, has invited Mayor Nutter and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to attend the rally, to hear what more the city and police can do to better protect people and their pets.

He also will provide a description of Nicetown's Victor Rodriguez, 15, who was arrested in connection with the crime but who failed to show for a pre-trial listing. Rodriguez is charged with felony extortion, criminal conspiracy and criminal mischief, plus additional charges of terroristic threats and harassment. A bench warrant for his arrest was issued Jan. 31.

The D.A. is responsible for hunting juveniles with warrants against them - and there are 2,658 of them, according to D.A. spokeswoman Cathie Abookire. The monthlong search for Rodriguez has been fruitless so far, she said. "We have gone to several addresses where we thought he might be, and he wasn't," she said. "He is not enrolled in any school."

Somehow, that fails to shock.

What does shock is that, to my knowledge, neither police nor Verizon have taken a step to improve the procedures that may have doomed Edna.

It was a dog this time. It could be a child next time. *

E-mail: stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns:

http://go.philly.com/byko.