What a difference....two days in April.

 At this moment in time, Bert is
fast asleep or maybe

he has just passed out from exhaustion.
I am coming down from a caffeine high.
I only have caffeine when I

am driving long distances,
like coming back from today's search. 
I think I had four Pepsi's today
driving to and from the scene. 
Now I am jittery and nervous and

a bit jealous of Mr. Bert
lying peacefully in his bed.

 Saturday was our usual "Walk"
with our friends.  This is

a great time for both Bert and
me as we get to visit/play at our
precious river and local "Forest".

There are usually 5 to 20 people with

their k-9 friends who show up and it is

looked forward to all week.

Murphy's little sister becomes hitched to

Berts Side on these walks.  And sweet Bert

has an arrangement with Paulette

(Sophies human).

If Bert lets Sophie hang on him, run by him,

nibble at his ear, grab his hear, jump on him,

around him, behind him in front of him,

if he takes all her adoration in stride......Paulette will

treat him throughout the walk. 

That works for Bert

 When Bert isn't in the river, he is bounding

up dirt mountains and green hillsides.

It is a time of pure abandonment for him,
his buddy Goose (who was off
somewhere else as I took pictures)

and all his other friends.

 Occasionally we can get a few of them

to sit and pose.  (From left to right)

Annie, Bert, Sophie, KC, and Jake

After the walk, we spent the rest of the

day working at the kennels with Whitney and

Rocky.  It was a long day but it was also

a beautiful spring day and so work just

doesn't seem like work on a day like this.

Sunday Morning we had been asked

to head to Idaho

for a search.  (which by the way,

I couldn't have done

if it werent for my sweet neice Whitney

and Goose's human, Michelle who

covered for me at the kennel)

 

We were going to meet up with

another dog unit on sight. 

We have worked with them

before and they are very very good

so I was looking forward to working

with them again.

Unfortunately I woke up to a

nasty infection and

some painful muscle strain in my

shoulder from pretending

I could do the work of a man the day before.

 

A decision had to be made.

Do I want to stay home and be miserable,

sick and in pain, or head to Idaho and be

miserable and in pain.

 

Well of course we headed out.  I mean,

check out the scenery

that we had on the drive.

You might as well be looking

at something beautiful

while your in pain, rather

than lying in bed.....right?

Besides, that is what medications

are for.  Thank goodness for Advil.....

 I love our Utah Mountains.
When we hit Idaho

and our search area we were pulled
away from the mountains in to gorgeous meadows and pastures

bursting with early spring green growth.

 While Bert and I were waiting for the
Sheriff and my friends JD and
Sandra, a group of motorcycle riders
pulled up to the country grill.
 

I couldn't resist asking them to pose
with him.  They were awfully
good sports.  However a few

of them would not allow me
to photograph them

for one reason or another......
they said not to

check out any post office walls.

Wonder what they meant.

And here is where the search was.

What a peaceful land, gentle hills, dark

sky's filled with moisture.....a place

that you would find me and Bert on any

other day, walking the tracks like a hobo,

waiving at the conductors of the trains as they

thundered by.  The next view is from 4

months ago on an early morning in January.

But today it was the scene

of a cadaver search where we were looking

for anything we could find so that a family

could bury as much of their loved

one as possible.

 The accident occurred back in January on

a dark foggy morning.  A wonderful
man who I am told was a happy go lucky, friendly guy.  A guy who would be
behind you in a check out line and

suddenly offer to buy your groceries for you.

The guy who always played
Santa at Christmas time.

That kind of guy.   But on this morning
because of the weather, he did not

see the on coming train, he did not know

it was the last time he would
drive this road home to his family.

 The accident derailed 16 cars and
debris from both the truck and the
train-cars was spread all over

the side of the tracks. 
Three months later and even

though they have laid another thick
layer of gravel

down the hillside from the tracks,
debris is still everywhere. 
Our job was to work through

this debris and see if the dogs could
find any human remains under
the new rock layer or

down in the swamp below.

Here if you look carefully you can see

Kurts dog on a "Down" alert in

everal inches of water and dried

cat tail plants.    This area will have

to be dug and sifted

through screens and will most likely

have fragments of bone and flesh.

 JD the man I told you about in an earlier

post worked tirelessly through
the day, checking

out each and every alert
with the other deputies.

This was hard for me to watch as
it is JD's sisters husband who is
our victim.  It doesn't matter

how long you have been doing
this, it doesn't matter

how much we have seen......sometimes
it is just too close to home...

 Sandra (JD's wife) was working with me through much of the day.

Oh how I have missed these two
over the last few years.

You meet special people in SAR
work that stand out from

the rest.  That is JD and Sandra.

 Joe and Gunny check out the area along

the tracks as the wind blows up hill, carrying

human scent buried beneath the ground
as well as anything along the surface.

 Bert waits "not so patiently" for his turn

to work again.  

 If you look carefully you can see a small

red flag on a long post.  When a dog alerts to

something below the surface, the spot is
flagged then the diggers come in
and carefully sift through the area.
The finds today were as small

as tufts of human hair, small pieces
of skin and a 6 inch bone. 

 Moist areas can trap the scent and
make things cover a wider area
so we often mark an alert

then leave the area with the dog
and let the diggers

come and see what they can find. 
After words the dogs are brought
back into the area to see

if there is more interest. 

Cadaver work is much more arduous than

wilderness work.  You are covering

a much smaller area, but it is very intense.

The grids are small and you often

go over the area again and again

which can be frustrating to your dog.

I imagine them thinking "how many

times do I have to tell her"

 It was almost time to call it quits and I knew

Bert needed something a little less intense so

I put him on a "Slow Search" command and

we headed in the opposite direction
along the tracks.

I knew he wouldn't find anything on
this side of the road

but it would give him a chance to stretch
out and check out a couple of 
hundred yards of the tracks at a lope
instead of a more concentrated speed.

 I have always loved the endless sight

along railroad tracks.  Even in this situation

the call of adventure draws at your heart

when you view a sight like this.

 But it was time to get back in the old van

and head home to another kind of dream.

Of course taking pictures of the scenery

while you are driving isn't what
I would recommend but come on,
doesn't that old barn, those snow

covered mountains and the introduction

of spring on the grassy hill make ya smile?

 

April 24 & 25 2013

I was just going with Vickie for

a drive.  I like to sit in the car and I am

happy to go with her, even if we don't get

to stop and play. 

 

I thought Wednesday was going to

just be a "Ride Along" day but

after getting some supplies for the

kennel, we decided to see if we could

find a different way to get to the lake.



We drove around for a while and finally

found a trail that came to this rickety

old bridge thing.  We crossed the bridge

carefully and then made our way to the lake.



 The pelicans are migrating now and there

were about 100 of them just bobbing

up and down in the lake.

 One day we will show you the lake,

it is on the other side of this hill,

but we didn't get any good pictures of it

today cause I was busy swimming

and Vickie was busy fighting off

the gnats.  It was so pretty though, that

she didn't mind it much.

 

Seems there are a lot of little flying insects

this year.  Or maybe it was because

we were standing by a bunch of dead fish

drying in the sun.

Thursday we were off to the school

so the kids could read to me.

we were greeted by all this really cool

chalk artwork the kids had done.

 Vickie says when she was young

the principal would have a fit if they

did chalk drawings all over the school,

but this principal encouraged it.

I tried helping Andrea with her

words, but it was pretty exhausting so

I just closed my eyes and fell asleep.

 

Today while we were there, the head of

United Way came and gave me and Vickie

a special Tutor pin to wear.  They told me

I was doing a great job.

They put my pin on a cool bandanna that they

made just for me.  Well, they made Toby one

too.   Isn't that so neat.  I am a Tutor.

 Now you may think that I would

have to keep my eyes on the book all

the time, but what is important is that

I make myself completely available

for the child to pet me while reading.

So if I should fall asleep

It is really ok.

 



I really have it tough,

Don't I.

April 20th thru the 22nd 2013

 We were worried (well Vickie was worried)

that Allred had had so much bad things happen

to him on is walk about last

November and December

that he would never get back to normal.

I am here to say, that "The Evil One" is back

 

Worse than ever.  Poor Tanner cannot

walk through the kitchen without getting

smacked by Allred.  In fact, none of us

have escaped his wrath the last few weeks.

 

Even Vickie has a scar on her neck for a

late night mood that over came him.

 

IN some ways this makes her happy but in

other ways, it is like living with the devil again.

 John went hiking last weekend up to the ranch

and came back with good news.  The roads

will soon be open enough for us

to get up and play.

There were many fun wildlife critters

to see, among them Moose, Elk, A white wolf

and these critters.   Man.....A white wolf.

I so hope me and Vickie get to see it this year.

Back at the kennel we had a new guest

who moved into the trees surrounding us.

We decided to call her Pippin.

Sorry to many of my blogville friends,

but I think this is the cutest squirrel ever

and I am excited she has moved in.

 Monday Me and Goose took our humans

for a fun walk and swim.

 With the snow gone we can get

into lots of fun areas where I can climb

trees, romp through the woods,

anything I like.

 My Vickie's Heart tree is still here.

It is cute how she smiles every time she

sees it.  She calls it her "Double the Love" tree.

While your checking out the cool pictures

we took on our walk, I want to tell

you about one of the great characters in

our lives.  We got a call from him yesterday

while me and Vickie were at the University

testing for our Pet Partners re-certification.

By the way, I got the highest level on

the test and I have no restrictions.

 

That means, I am good to go anywhere at

all, no matter what the size of the group

is, how crazy a situation (like in the ER)

I get it all.  Yeah.

 Anyway, when we got out of the test

we were told to call our Past National SAR

President JD.  That was like, a blast from

the past for Vickie since she hadn't spoken to

them for years. 

She was so excited to call and say hi. 

JD was the head of his whole

county's Search and

Rescue department just over the

boarder of Idaho

for as long as we can remember.

 

He is a tall, lanky, cheerful, fun guy who made

every search in his county an event.

By that we mean, that even though it was

terrible, hard, dangerous, sad....what ever

the situation.  JD was there to cheer us on

and to bring a lighter side to everything.

(Don't get us wrong, he was one of the two best

people that Vickie and all of our teams

loved working with.  His professionalism,

his skills, everything made him an incredible

commander.)   But he was a joy to work with

at the same time and he took such good care

of all his members and all of our dog teams.

 Anyway, JD wanted some cadaver dogs.

Well, I am one heck of a cadaver dog myself

but since we have been doing so much

therapy work, I have gotten a little out of

practice so we referred him to another unit

of dogs that we have worked with in the

past to come out and help them find the

rest of a victim of a train/truck crash

that happened in January.

We are thinking of going along just

to be able to work with JD again and to

see his Sandra his wife, who is also a delight

and we have missed too.  Check in next week

and we will let you know if we have any

luck.  The victim is a close family member

to JD and Sandra so we are hoping

we can help bring some closure to them

after so many months.

 

Well, off to the hospital now.  I can't wait

tell the nurses how my test went.

 

Bert

Third Week of April

 Thursday Morning was a sad day

for our little Tanner.   His human passed

away.  Of course Tanner can be a member

of our family for the rest of his life

but it is always hard to lose a loved one.

We think Tanner knew, because at the time

she passed, he was eating breakfast. 

He stopped eating after only

a few bites and turned around

and looked into open space, then walked into

another room with his eyes looking upward

like he was walking with someone and listening

to them talk.  I know to some, that is just

something that happened but to me,

I wonder if his human came to say goodbye.

 Bert is moving on to another

classroom of children this week.

The class he read with over the last

few months asked us to come in for a minute

before we start the new group.

They said goodbye and gave us a beautiful

book with pictures of each child reading

to Bert and some very precious

letters from all of them.

There were even a few tears.  They all

wanted a big hug from Bert before we

left which he happily gave them.

 The new group of kids were excitedly waiting

for us and with a few words of

dog courtesy, we were off again

on a new adventure.

 Earlier in the week, we were both invited

to a Physicians Luncheon where

Bert was asked to "Just Be Himself"

as the doctors and nurses asked questions

about him and the other teams.

Then we were off to visit patients and family

members.   Bert was particularly loving

that day which was great as he had

some very special gentlemen who needed

his presence very much.

Now it is heading into the weekend which

is going to be all about PLAY.