Raina

Friday morning K9 Raina and K9 Abby deployed with me south of Utica to search for a hunter who went missing on thanksgiving. We were on the road by 5am and in the field as soon as we arrived.  We met Kara our flanker from Amigo and got Raina started first, working Abby later in the afternoon to finish up our area and recheck a couple places Raina had scent. The search was called off later that afternoon after he was located deceased. It was a sad ending but at least the family had closure. Raina and Abby worked about 7 miles total and were happy to get home and take a break!

Of course there is no rest for the weary and we were deployed last night at 7pm to Ellenville to search for a missing man. He had been missing for almost 22 hours already and K9 teams were out all day. We took the night shift working from 7pm till 5am this morning. It was a crazy night in rocky mountains and high mountain laurel up and down over the hills chasing scent and clearing areas. After 7 miles with Raina I got abby out to clear the rest of my area. She dragged us up to the same mountain top and worked scent all over till my phone rang. It was our subject, he thought he was on the mountain across the street from his house and he was cold, hungry, and not 100% coherent.  After the area was thoroughly checked with no trace we re deployed raina back in our area where the dogs had interest. The subject called back again, he was confused and scared and said people were chasing him, and he could see our flashing lights. I looked at my flanker from Amigo Erik and knew we had to step it up! Raina had a bright blue flashing light on her vest and i knew we had been closing in on someone earlier when he had called. Our suspicions were right he didn’t want to get found, he wanted to make it out on his own!! After a scary run in with a confrontational pack of coyotes we took our sticks and moved on clearing the rest of our area. We emerged from the woods and went home at 5:30am. Halfway home my phone rang again, our subject had walked out on his own an hour after we left down the street from his house! He was safe, the girls did great, and we managed a few hours of sleep before our week began again!!!