Just another Day

 The call had come just pass noon. A local police chief in the next county wanted to know if our dogs could find a dead body. Never say you CAN, say you'll TRY.

 "We've waited for 3 years for the court to give us permission to search this land," the sheriff said slowly. "We need that evidence".

 We set it up for the next morning at 5 AM. The heat would climb to the 100° mark, and we would have to be done before it got too hot to work.

 We loaded at 3:30AM for the hour drive. Finding the police station is often the hardest part of any search, and I always allot the time to locate it, and refresh the dogs. Our police escort takes us on to the crime scene. Time to set up "base camp"...we choose a large shady Oak. We put out the crates and chairs for resting, both people and dogs.

 Each dog works on a different command. We select different words so each dog will work his own job. Fox , Wooly, and Magic all use "Fred" to find a dead person (our name for cadaver dirt is Fred dirt in memory of the first donor). The big red Dobie uses Reaper for the Grim Reaper, and the Lab and another Dobie use an Indian word for the dead called Napoo. Sometimes one team will look for cadaver and the other team is looking for live, so the different commands help each dog focus on their target.

 A softly spoken command and 2 Schips, 2 Dobies and a Lab go bounding into the surrounding countryside. Each handler follows a dog slowly and quietly, watching for an "Alert". This is a simple change in a dog's posture, attitide or behavior.

 Soon there are 3 dogs under the house. Digging. One Schip is stiff legged and backing out. Wooly hates the smell of human cadaver. It's a good indicator that they may have found the gravesite. We call off the dogs, and it's the turn of a local Explore Scout group, that we like to
work with us, to dig up and sift the dirt for clues. They have been trained well in the searching of the crime scene. Chain of evidence must be followed, or the evidence will not hold up in court.

 As we wait, we continue to search the remaining buildings. The big Dobie, Bubba, and the small Schip, Fox, work the old wrecked cars. It is full of oil, gas and grease. We have a weak alert. Is it another body? Could it be the remains of the human that had been killed in the car when it crashed ? We report back to the Chief for him to check it out. Sometimes we never know.

 They have found a sweater and buttons, a few bones. There had been a layer of plastic, 3" of newspaper and then "evidence". We can go home now. The dogs have done their job. The body had been buried for 4 years, but that mattered not to the well trained dogs of our unit. The temps have reached over 100° and a heat index of 116°.

 The long drive home and a bath for each dog and myself ease my tired body. At 50, I wish for youth. My small black friends come to snuggle and we enjoy a moment of shared peace. Then it's clean out the car, pick up the kid and meet the hubby for dinner. I'm too lazy to cook tonight.

  As we pull into the drive, we hear the distant thunder, and we await the heat breaking storm. Content with today's search success, I snuggle down with a Schip on each side, across my feet and in my lap. The phone rings as the thunder crashes close by. A Search. Ray, my hubby, loads as I dig out a clean uniform.

I'm gone in ten minutes.
 

Continued on Next Page:  Part II

[Stories Home]  [Burning Need]  [The Flood]  [Molly]  [Aaron]  [Just Another Day]  [Water Search]  [Mock Search]  [Murder Most Foul]  [Gone Fishing]  [Once Again]  [Cossatot River Search]  [Return to Life]  [Too Old for This]  [Lord Vincent]  [Up From The Depths]  [Citizenship]   [Search Schip]  [Marmaduke Search]  [Lilly and Jamie]  [White Water Killer]  [Blood, Sweat 'N Cheers]