Post by Rhonda on Aug 24, 2007 3:56:07 GMT -5
What I nice story! Animals Are A Gift We Take For Granted!
This is a post from one of the wolfdogz list's newest
members. He
had a SAR dog that was lost on 9-11 when a building
adjacent
to the twin towers came down on him and he was in New
Orleans
with his crew after Katrina.
This is a very special story that will likely bring
tears to your eyes
and it is so special because his dogs are 50% husky/50%
wolf. He
works with them daily at the airport, I think he said
in Orlando,
they search the cargo and luggage for nitrate or
explosives. Last
week one of his dogs left the conveyer and cornered a
passenger
who was returning home from vacation. The passenger, an
off duty
police officer, just happened to forget a bullet that
had been in his
jacket pocket. The dog scented it from 40 yards away in
a jacket
pocket that had previously been searched going and
coming and
had not been found until one of his crew left his post
and cornered
a passenger who was ready to board his flight.
Aren't these guys amazing?
You are really going to be in awe when you finish this
story.
Sheila
-----
From: Jim McGee
Of all the things we do with the crew, what I enjoy
most, what is the
most satisfying, (and sometimes the most heartbreaking)
are missing
persons searches. All of the skills we work so hard at
to hone, all the
hours of training, are put to the test in a race
against the clock.
Whether it is an abducted or lost child, fugitive
search, missing hiker,
time is critical. What I had never really thought about
before today
however is the view from the other side.
At about 2:30 this morning I was sitting at the
computer paying bills
and answering the days mail, when the phone rang. We
had just gotten
back from our shift at the airport, no sleep yet, so I
was not looking
forward to speaking to whoever was on the other end.
Who was there, was
Mike Dodd, from the Lake county Sheriff's Dept. Anna
Gaskill, an 87 year
old Altzheimer's patient had wandered off from the home
where she lived
with her son and his wife In Astor. To make matters
worse, she had been
alone in the house for several hours, so no one knew
for sure when she
had left. A sheriff's tracking team and several
deputies had already
been searching for 7 hours, so 9-11 hours had elapsed
before the call
came to us. We were 40 miles away so even more time
would be gone. I
decided to take No Ka Oi and her sister Kai'imi. Even
though they are
the oldest, they are our best trackers and the most
experienced. Astor
is a small town at the eastern edge of the Ocala
National Forest,
bordered by the St John's River, and Lake George. It is
very rural,
palmetto praries, pine forest and of course...SWAMP.
When we arrived at
the home of the family, a doublewide trailer at the end
of a dirt road,
The first search team had returned, having lost the
trail less than a
mile from the house. We immediately got a scent marker
from a pair of
Anna's shoes and headed out.
We use a very unique method of ground search, taken
straight from the
Combat Tracking Teams
where I was trained. Instead of the step by step scent
tracking which is
standard, we employ a highly mobile, fast moving
technique where the
handler Is trained in visual tracking, area grid search
probabilities
and lost person behavior patterns. The dogs use ground
and aerial scent,
as well as sight and sound. Once a general direction of
travel is
established, the dogs move out into an area search
pattern of very wide
S turns. They wear GPS collars and strobes on their
harnesses, returning
to the handler at regular intervals for direction. In
essence, they are
hunting as a pack, with the handler as the alpha. It is
a very effective
system, designed for
one purpose - To close distance as quickly as possible.
Contrary to what you may see in the movies, a pack of
dogs running mile
after mile in the pursuit of their quarry, the reality
is that unless
that quarry stops within the first half mile or so, the
chances of
catching up to him using traditional methods are slim
to none. Most
tracking dogs peter out within 1/2 mile or so. This is
where the Wolf
Husky shines. Built to run all day, they absolutely
will not stop until
they have located their quarry or are called back by
the handler. We had
traveled over 7 miles, down paths which were nothing
more than 4 wheeler
tracks and water trails when even these gave out.
Remember, this is an
87 year old woman! Even though it was night when she
left, it was now
well into the day with the temperature closing in on 90
degrees and
rising. We were facing an area of empty FL wilderness,
and the dogs were
tracking back and forth telling me that she had been
wandering around in
here. I sent the girls to opposite sides, in an area
search pattern and
let them run. 20 minutes later Noka gives her
"location" howl and Kai'mi
answers from the other side. We started moving toward
Noka when they
both howled together and we knew they had found Anna.
We just didn't
know what shape she was in. It took us another 15
minutes to reach their
location and as we came through the brush, this is the
picture that
greeted us. Anna, who couldn't have weighed more than
90 lbs, was
sitting in between the two dogs that just dwarfed her.
Dressed in a
nightgown and 1 slipper, she was crying and clinging to
the two girls
who in turn were licking her face. We were several
thousand yards from
where a vehicle could get to, so the deputies went back
for a litter and
I sat with Anna, trying to see how bad her condition
was. Her feet were
bleeding, and she was scratched and exhausted, but all
things
considered, seemed to be in remarkable shape for the
ordeal she had just
endured.
She did not seem to be aware that I was there, but when
I tried to move
the dogs away, she just clung tighter and would not let
go. When the
deputies returned, the only way she would let us move
her was for me to
leash Noka and let her hold it. We got her into the
Sheriff's SUV and
since it was closer to the Pierson Medical Center than
to go back, we
headed that way. During the ride Anna seem to come
around but still
wanted the girls with her in the back. As we talked,
she looked at me
and said " I was lost and I was scared. I thought I was
going home, but
I couldn't find it. I was in the woods and didn't know
why. I was so
tired I just gave up and sat down. I was crying, and
then a wolf came,
and I was scared, but it licked my face. Then it sang
to me and another
wolf came, and he licked my face too, and sat with me
and they both
sang, and I wasn't scared anymore"
I was stunned. I had never before thought about how it
must be from the
other side. From Anna's
perspective, that's exactly what had happened. She was
lost and scared,
when a wolf came and sang to her. It comforted her, and
another came and
did the same thing. How utterly magical that must have
seemed!
When we arrived at the hospital the only way she would
let go of the
girls was with my promise to bring them back to see
her. It's a promise
I will keep...
Jim
Haiku Kennels
This is a post from one of the wolfdogz list's newest
members. He
had a SAR dog that was lost on 9-11 when a building
adjacent
to the twin towers came down on him and he was in New
Orleans
with his crew after Katrina.
This is a very special story that will likely bring
tears to your eyes
and it is so special because his dogs are 50% husky/50%
wolf. He
works with them daily at the airport, I think he said
in Orlando,
they search the cargo and luggage for nitrate or
explosives. Last
week one of his dogs left the conveyer and cornered a
passenger
who was returning home from vacation. The passenger, an
off duty
police officer, just happened to forget a bullet that
had been in his
jacket pocket. The dog scented it from 40 yards away in
a jacket
pocket that had previously been searched going and
coming and
had not been found until one of his crew left his post
and cornered
a passenger who was ready to board his flight.
Aren't these guys amazing?
You are really going to be in awe when you finish this
story.
Sheila
-----
From: Jim McGee
Of all the things we do with the crew, what I enjoy
most, what is the
most satisfying, (and sometimes the most heartbreaking)
are missing
persons searches. All of the skills we work so hard at
to hone, all the
hours of training, are put to the test in a race
against the clock.
Whether it is an abducted or lost child, fugitive
search, missing hiker,
time is critical. What I had never really thought about
before today
however is the view from the other side.
At about 2:30 this morning I was sitting at the
computer paying bills
and answering the days mail, when the phone rang. We
had just gotten
back from our shift at the airport, no sleep yet, so I
was not looking
forward to speaking to whoever was on the other end.
Who was there, was
Mike Dodd, from the Lake county Sheriff's Dept. Anna
Gaskill, an 87 year
old Altzheimer's patient had wandered off from the home
where she lived
with her son and his wife In Astor. To make matters
worse, she had been
alone in the house for several hours, so no one knew
for sure when she
had left. A sheriff's tracking team and several
deputies had already
been searching for 7 hours, so 9-11 hours had elapsed
before the call
came to us. We were 40 miles away so even more time
would be gone. I
decided to take No Ka Oi and her sister Kai'imi. Even
though they are
the oldest, they are our best trackers and the most
experienced. Astor
is a small town at the eastern edge of the Ocala
National Forest,
bordered by the St John's River, and Lake George. It is
very rural,
palmetto praries, pine forest and of course...SWAMP.
When we arrived at
the home of the family, a doublewide trailer at the end
of a dirt road,
The first search team had returned, having lost the
trail less than a
mile from the house. We immediately got a scent marker
from a pair of
Anna's shoes and headed out.
We use a very unique method of ground search, taken
straight from the
Combat Tracking Teams
where I was trained. Instead of the step by step scent
tracking which is
standard, we employ a highly mobile, fast moving
technique where the
handler Is trained in visual tracking, area grid search
probabilities
and lost person behavior patterns. The dogs use ground
and aerial scent,
as well as sight and sound. Once a general direction of
travel is
established, the dogs move out into an area search
pattern of very wide
S turns. They wear GPS collars and strobes on their
harnesses, returning
to the handler at regular intervals for direction. In
essence, they are
hunting as a pack, with the handler as the alpha. It is
a very effective
system, designed for
one purpose - To close distance as quickly as possible.
Contrary to what you may see in the movies, a pack of
dogs running mile
after mile in the pursuit of their quarry, the reality
is that unless
that quarry stops within the first half mile or so, the
chances of
catching up to him using traditional methods are slim
to none. Most
tracking dogs peter out within 1/2 mile or so. This is
where the Wolf
Husky shines. Built to run all day, they absolutely
will not stop until
they have located their quarry or are called back by
the handler. We had
traveled over 7 miles, down paths which were nothing
more than 4 wheeler
tracks and water trails when even these gave out.
Remember, this is an
87 year old woman! Even though it was night when she
left, it was now
well into the day with the temperature closing in on 90
degrees and
rising. We were facing an area of empty FL wilderness,
and the dogs were
tracking back and forth telling me that she had been
wandering around in
here. I sent the girls to opposite sides, in an area
search pattern and
let them run. 20 minutes later Noka gives her
"location" howl and Kai'mi
answers from the other side. We started moving toward
Noka when they
both howled together and we knew they had found Anna.
We just didn't
know what shape she was in. It took us another 15
minutes to reach their
location and as we came through the brush, this is the
picture that
greeted us. Anna, who couldn't have weighed more than
90 lbs, was
sitting in between the two dogs that just dwarfed her.
Dressed in a
nightgown and 1 slipper, she was crying and clinging to
the two girls
who in turn were licking her face. We were several
thousand yards from
where a vehicle could get to, so the deputies went back
for a litter and
I sat with Anna, trying to see how bad her condition
was. Her feet were
bleeding, and she was scratched and exhausted, but all
things
considered, seemed to be in remarkable shape for the
ordeal she had just
endured.
She did not seem to be aware that I was there, but when
I tried to move
the dogs away, she just clung tighter and would not let
go. When the
deputies returned, the only way she would let us move
her was for me to
leash Noka and let her hold it. We got her into the
Sheriff's SUV and
since it was closer to the Pierson Medical Center than
to go back, we
headed that way. During the ride Anna seem to come
around but still
wanted the girls with her in the back. As we talked,
she looked at me
and said " I was lost and I was scared. I thought I was
going home, but
I couldn't find it. I was in the woods and didn't know
why. I was so
tired I just gave up and sat down. I was crying, and
then a wolf came,
and I was scared, but it licked my face. Then it sang
to me and another
wolf came, and he licked my face too, and sat with me
and they both
sang, and I wasn't scared anymore"
I was stunned. I had never before thought about how it
must be from the
other side. From Anna's
perspective, that's exactly what had happened. She was
lost and scared,
when a wolf came and sang to her. It comforted her, and
another came and
did the same thing. How utterly magical that must have
seemed!
When we arrived at the hospital the only way she would
let go of the
girls was with my promise to bring them back to see
her. It's a promise
I will keep...
Jim
Haiku Kennels