These Colors Don't Run!

"If these dogs only knew what a difference they make.  Certainly, there's nothing that can replace the precision of a dog's nose—and absolutely nothing that can replace a dog's heart."Their sense of smell has been estimated to be at least one million times more refined than ours; they have as many as 220,000,000 "sniffer" cells, compared to a human's mere 5,000,000; they can detect sound vibrations at 250 yards that most humans can barely hear at 25; and most importantly, these marvelous workers are dedicated, determined and motivated beyond the limits of exhaustion like no human or machine could ever be.

Stray German shepherd may have new career as rescue dog

By Elliott Minor The Associated Press

THOMASVILLE, Ga. — A bruised and battered southern Georgia woman credits a wayward German shepherd with rescuing her after her car careened down an embankment, tossing her through the rear window and leaving her sprawled, cut and bleeding, on the vehicle’s trunk.
Shannon Lorio, 36, said the dog, who has since been given the name Hero, pulled her by her collar off the trunk and dragged her about 50 yards through briars to the edge of a highway and let her lean against him so she could stand up and flag a passing motorist.
Officials of the Thomasville-Thomas County Humane Society, which runs the local animal shelter — now Hero’s temporary home — were so impressed with the victim’s account they have arranged to have Hero evaluated for search and rescue work.
“That dog is always going to have a special place in my heart,” Lorio said Friday during a tearful reunion with the dog. “He’s my hero.”
Lorio, who still has scratches and bruises on her arms and legs, spent most of a night in the hospital, until she insisted on being released.
She still walks with a limp. Cuts on her left elbow are held closed by more than 20 metal staples.
She had her first reunion with Hero on Thursday, when she arrived with her mother-in-law with gifts for the dog, including a large pillow, a stuffed animal and a bone almost as big as a rolling pin.
When Lorio returned Friday, she hugged and kissed Hero as he plopped down on the pillow and began crunching the bone with his strong jaws.
“If he ever needs anything, I’ll be there,” she said, noting that she can’t adopt Hero because she already has six dogs. “If I did adopt him, he’d be treated like the king he is. That dog is always going to have a special place in my heart.”
The crash occurred on the night of Jan. 26. Lorio, who has three children of her own and two adopted children, said she lost control on a curve in a remote area and the car tumbled backward down an embankment in a heavily wooded area.
She was thrown backward, so that her torso was on the trunk and her feet were dangling over the rear seat.
She said she was not wearing a seat belt, although she requires her children to wear them.
“I was bleeding from my face and my nose,” she said. “All of a sudden, I felt a presence — a really huge presence. He was straddling me. I have watched too many horror movies about werewolves and vampires. I thought he was going to eat me.”
Instead, the dog licked her face and locked his jaws on her shirt collar, she said. He dragged her off the car and kept pulling until she was near the edge of a highway, said Lorio, a trim, 136-pound woman.
She leaned on the dog while summoning help and then collapsed in a semiconscious state, Lori said.
By the time authorities arrived, she said she heard someone mention the Humane Society. Lorio begged them not to take the dog there, fearing he might be euthanized.
“I don’t know where he came from, but this dog saved my life,” she said. “I didn’t want him put to sleep.”
Kim Arrington, manager of the Thomasville-Thomas County Humane Society, said there’s no danger of that.
Because of all the publicity the dog has received, at least 50 people have offered to adopt the 2-year-old shepherd, who weighs 65 to 70 pounds, she said.
Based on Lorio’s experiences with Hero, Arrington thinks he might have the right stuff to be a search and rescue dog.
So she contacted Heidy Drawdy, a veteran Thomasville dog trainer who is a member of South Georgia Search Dog, a group that has taken part in numerous searches, including work in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
After a preliminary evaluation, Drawdy said Hero may have the qualities needed to become a certified search and rescue dog, but first he’ll be given obedience training.
Following the accident, Hero’s previous owners signed him over to the Humane Society because he kept wandering off.
Hero will move in with Drawdy, her husband, Michael, and their two search dogs on Monday, she said.
Training a search and rescue dog can take from nine to 24 months, Drawdy said. Besides obedience training, Hero will also learn to socialize with other dogs, children and senior citizens, and he’ll be exposed to the noise of emergency vehicles, she said.
“Right off the bat, he showed signs of having natural talent,” said Drawdy. “We’d like to see if we can give him a job because obviously he’s meant for something special.”

The 45th Skippy Dog Hero of the Year is Shelby, a 7-year-old German Shepherd from Ely, Iowa, who saved the lives of two adults and two children by alerting them to dangerously high carbon monoxide levels in the home where they were sleeping.

On the evening of December 13, after a long day of baking Christmas cookies, John and Janet Walderbach were awakened by the cries of their friends' two children, who were overnight guests. They and the children awoke with terrible headaches and upset stomachs. As Janet was rocking the younger child to sleep, she passed out.

Shelby revived her by nudging her until she regained consciousness. Shelby had her ears down and her tail tucked between her legs as she went to wake John. She continued to act anxious and would not leave their sides, as they tried to determine what was making them and the children feel so sick.

Thinking she might need a trip outdoors, John put her outside; but that only made her act more anxious as she began to bark, whine and scratch at the door. She did not rest until John, Janet and the children were safely outside the home.

Luckily, at the hospital, all four people were successfully treated in hyperbolic chambers, which eliminated the carbon monoxide in their bodies, preventing any severe damage. Doctors remarked that they were very lucky to have made it out when they did. The house measured 280 ppm (parts per million) of carbon monoxide, a level at which death or severe long-term damages are imminent.

Shelby survived the incident as well. And her owner, Joleen Walderbach (John and Janet's daughter), couldn't be more proud.

"In my eyes, and in the eyes of my family, Shelby is more than a hero; she is a lifesaver, a guardian angel," said Joleen