Sam, Roost and Blue received their certificates alongside handlers PC Ian Moore, PC Roxy Cramp and PC Tony Rouse on Friday (May 22).
Chief Inspector Lisa Kirkland and Inspector Gary Panther were on hand to make the presentations for the Cocker Spaniel and Springer Spaniel trio at the Carr Gate complex in Wakefield.
Ch Insp Kirkland said: “The dogs are as valuable part of the police family as anyone else and it is important that we recognise the crucial role that they play.
“They go through a rigorous training programme, to ensure they can support us in some of the most demanding and pressuring scenarios in the fight against crime.”
The dogs are trained to locate illegal substances in houses, vehicles and other situations, Ch Insp Kirkland said.
“Often these are secreted in places you would never expect, but the dogs have the skills and the ability to quickly seek them out and bring criminals to justice,” he added.
“The training itself is usually with their favourite toy, linking it to the scent of an illegal drug.
“They have no interest in the drugs themselves and it’s the reward of their toy that drives them.
“Each of the dogs that have received their certificates have their own distinctive personalities and they have been an absolute pleasure to be around.
“The handlers play an important role in their development and reaching this milestone is in no small part down to their dedication and empathy with the dogs.
“We look forward to having PD Sam, Roost and Blue on duty and I know they will each be a great asset to West Yorkshire Police and the communities we all serve.”
West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Mark Burns-Williamson added: “West Yorkshire Police’s dogs and horses units, with their handlers, play a unique and significant role in helping to keep our communities safe and it’s fantastic that they are being recognised in this way.
“This initiative follows the recent introduction of ‘Finns Law’ which gives increased protection to service animals, such as police dogs.”
Mr Burns-Williamson threw his “full support” behind the campaign after hearing the story of Police Dog Finn, who was stabbed and seriously injured in the line of duty but whose brave actions were credited with saving the life of his handler.
“A member of the public contacted me with regards to more formally recognising the contribution of police dogs which is something I raised with the Chief Constable on their behalf, so it’s a nice touch to see it come to fruition,” Mr Burns-Williamson added.
“All the best to PDs Sam, Roost and Blue, as well of course to their human colleague handlers within West Yorkshire Police, I am sure they will make a real difference to our communities and something which the public I know appreciate as well.”
Courthouse Dogs
Sometimes a dog hears the heart before a human ever could, showing love and patience where needed the most. That’s why courthouse dogs will soon join legal teams in Stephens County: to help provide care for a child or victim and assist their emotional needs inside the courtroom.
Sunny, a courthouse dog who doubles as a service dog in training with K9s 4 Mobility, uses a specific blanket with his name embroidered on it to mark his place in the room.
According to District Attorney Jason Hicks, the blanket goes in the witness stand and Sunny follows. When the witnesses are scared or sometimes become agitated, the dog will provide comfort to help the emotions going on inside of them.
“The witness will sit down, and they are encouraged to take their shoes off and put their feet on him … and he just lays there,” Hicks said.
Those in the courthouse show excitement about this new program, which would make a courtroom experience more calming for many people.
“I think it’s something all of us are really excited about and I think it would be really good for victims and especially children in the courtroom, because this courtroom could be a really scary place, especially for a child,” Hicks said.
Michelle Woerner, CEO of K9s 4 Mobility, said the program she works for is accredited through Assistance Dogs International (ADI), which makes sure the K9s 4 Mobility operates at the standards of the ethics of the industry. The organization works with Courthouse Dogs Foundation, which started the whole courthouse program about 10 years ago.
According to Woerner, Courthouse Dogs Foundation has set the standards and they’re an affiliate partner of ADL. They worked with the Stephens County Courthouse with the legal part and how to involve the dog, get judges support and more.
The process starts with a puppy with training in the home. From there, Woerner and her team will take over training, which moves to local, empty courtrooms by sitting in the witness box and eventually bench hearings.
The training process, according to Woerner, who comes from Cheyenne, Wyoming, allows to the dog to become used to the courtroom sounds and the variety of noises the dog will hear during a session.
According to Woerner, who works with Sunny, dogs in the program are trained to sit still as well as pick items up such as keys, a remote or anything someone has dropped on the floor and needs retrieving.
“We came up here to see what the courtrooms were like and Jason brought his kids in, so we had some kids to work with the dog,” Woerner said.
In visiting Stephens County, Woerner learned the courtrooms had a slight difference. Training rooms had a solid witness box, where the dog is not visible to the judge. Now, the judge can see the dog and the dog in turn had to learn somebody else would be moving around and not just the human they were accompanying.
The training team also scopes out the office and where the dog will live outside of work.
After the training team gets to know the courthouse and surroundings, they take the dog back and begin training them specifically for the job they will do.
“A courthouse dog has to be placed as part of the legal team,” Woerner said. “If they want a dog to come in and work with kids periodically, that would be a therapy dog and the person that has a therapy dog is not already privy to this information and doesn’t know how to work with the kids … and victims. So, it has to be a part of the legal team, so that they already have all the confidentiality.”
According to Woerner, the person working with the dog introduces the child or victim to the dog in what is called an interview room. The dog then builds a relationship and a bond with the individual within at least 30 minutes, allowing them to become comfortable with one another.
“Usually the attorneys will bring him into the courtroom to introduce him to the courtroom,” Woerner said. “It’s two to three times the child will work with the dog before they actually get into the witness box in front of a judge.”
Morgan Clark, 8 years old, sat with Sunny on the witness stand where Sunny laid at her feet, unseen to the rest of the courtroom.
“When the dog goes in the box, they know each other and are comfortable with each other,” Woerner said. “The dog is just supposed to lay there and be quiet, no whining, no barking, no moving, no playing. What they want is for nobody else in the courtroom to actually see the dog. Everybody knows the dog is there, but nobody should actually see the dog, once the dog goes under there that’s where the dog stays.”
Sunny knows a list of commands and does well with children.
“Sunny is very appropriate with kids,” Woerner said. “He’s not allowed to jump on kids, he doesn’t paw at kids. He has a command which is a head rest, where if you’re sitting, he puts his head on your lap. If you’re standing, he leans his head against you. That’s his way of saying, ‘I would like your attention, I’m comfortable with you. When kids are on the floor, he has to be laying down, we never want him to tower over the kids.”
Woerner said they teach all their assistance dogs certain skills, such as retrieving items for those with disabilities.
“We still teach our courthouse dogs to do that because when the child is building that bond with them, being able to drop something, like the remote control in the interview room and the dog gets it, it’s incredibly empowering for that child that maybe nobody’s listened to up until now, and they ask the dog to do something for them and the dog does it, and the dog’s happy to do it,” she said.
Woerner recalled a case where one juvenile, a past victim, became an offender and had a lot of emotions bottled up. Working with a dog in this case helped, Woerner said.
“When she comes in, she’s been very hostile, she’s been very violent and so we introduced him to her prior,” Woerner said. “She loved on him and he laid down on his blanket beside her and he laid there the whole time, put his head on her foot and … she stayed calm the entire time. The judge talked to her, she never raised her voice, she never became violent, and all he was doing was laying there.”
Woerner said mostly the dogs care for the victims, such as children and women that have been victims of different abuses, but they can be used in this circumstance as well. The dogs are also used with foster kids who need to sit in the courtroom with their foster parents.
Sunny has his boundaries and a routine, like breaks throughout the day, and they try to find a balance of work and play for the dogs. He has time to be “just a dog,” but if he has his vest on, that means he is working.
Carolina Puppies
Charlie Petrizzo has a calling to nurture puppies to become successful service dogs for those in need of healing.
Petrizzo is the founder and CEO of Project 2 Heal, a nonprofit organization that breeds and trains Labrador retrievers and donates them to service-dog organizations.
“The reason we do what we do is because most service dog organizations do not have a breeding program,” Petrizzo said. And as a result of not having a breeding program, they have to look through shelters to find dogs to train.
According to Paws With A Cause, 1-in-12 rescue dogs have the temperament to be placed as a service dog.
This failure rate can leave service organizations with lost time and resources and extend the time to place service dogs — which can sometimes take over three years.
Through its nature and nurture program, Project 2 Heal works to reduce the time and cost associated with training a service dog and pairing it with a person in need.
“We breed, nurture, socialize and train purpose-bred Labrador retriever puppies so that we can donate them to service-dog organizations across the country,” Petrizzo said.
Over the last 3 years, the organization has donated over 150 puppies to service-dog organizations.
These puppies go on to be furry companions of individuals with disabilities, special-needs children and veterans having trouble adjusting to life after war.
“Many of our organizations serve a lot of veterans,” Petrizzo said. “I think what the service dogs do for those veterans is they become a brother or comrade.”
Petrizzo went on to describe the relationship between a service dog and a special-needs child as a “social lubricant,” meaning it works to grease the engine of what some would call a friendship.
Project 2 Heal was awarded $3,500 as the SEED20 3rd Place and Community Vote winner.
Created by Social Venture Partners, the annual SEED20 program identifies, highlights and connects the community to the region’s most innovative ideas for tackling pressing social challenges.
The innovations can be developed by an individual or startup with a well-formed idea, an emerging nonprofit or a well-established nonprofit with a new program.
Some of the Charlotte region’s most innovative thinkers challenge themselves and the community and compete for cash rewards.
Each year, over the course of two months, a class of 20 nonprofit participants receives training, coaching, feedback and mentoring on how to tell their story succinctly and powerfully — who they are and why they matter.
Virtual Visits With A Therapy Dog
Jagger, a floppy-haired goldendoodle who lives in Half Moon Bay, typically spends his days meeting new people.
As a member of the SFO airport’s Wag Brigade, a friendly crew of volunteer therapy dogs (and one pig), Jagger’s job depends on delighting large crowds with his adorable antics. But when the coronavirus hit, his job became impossible – just when a stressed-out population could use the sight of a perky goldendoodle the most.
Despite this, Jagger and his human, Cat Torrejón-Nisbet, aren’t taking a break from therapy duties. Instead, like many people across the world right now, this pup’s job has gone remote.
With the help of the San Francisco SPCA, Jagger and other therapy dogs have begun offering virtual therapy visits via Zoom.
Therapy Dog Gohan
Gohan greets visitors with excitement, jumping up and licking their faces, and holds a special role on Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s campus to help relieve student stress.
The four-year-old Shiba Inu has served as an in-house therapy dog at HKUST under an animal-assisted support programme introduced at the university last year.
“Studying can get stressful with a lot of assignments. It is relaxing to join a therapy dog session when I don’t have to think about any other things but enjoyment,” said Candy Tang Hau-tung, a final-year student majoring in electronic engineering.
“I learned how to interact with dogs, communicate with them and understand their emotions. The experience is new to me,” added 22-year-old, who has never had a dog or cat as a pet.
Gohan, who was first adopted by a residence master at the university when he was around six months old, was granted an exemption from its no-pet rule and allowed to stay on the Clear Water Bay campus last year as a therapy dog.
Gohan is the second university therapy dog, after the University of Hong Kong introduced one to its libraries in late 2017.
Clinical psychologist and associate professor from HKU’s Department of Social Work and Social Administration, Paul Wong Wai-ching, said touching animals could release stress because it made people mindful of the present.
“When people touch fur animals, the bonding makes both parties release some ‘happy’ hormones,” Wong said.
Walk-in interactions with the therapy dog attracted nearly 200 participants from September to November last year, with 68 returning to the sessions, according to the Dean of Students’ Office at HKUST. The school had also hosted 18 private meetings upon students’ request since December last year.
Tang, who has been a regular participant since last summer, said: “I feel like I understand what he is thinking, his habits, likes and dislikes.” After joining several mingling sessions, students can attend a caring tutorial led by professional dog trainers. They learn how to look after dogs, including walking, feeding and playing with them before becoming Gohan’s regular carers. Final-year student Tommy Kwok Tze-fung decided to step up as a helper for the programme after joining it for three months to guide new participants in the dos and don’ts while interacting with Gohan.
“As a helper, I do not only play with Gohan but also take care of his feelings and reactions,” Kwok said.
In Hong Kong, only 5.7 per cent of households had dogs, according to a Census and Statistics Department survey conducted during March to June 2018, which meant that about 220,000 of these pets were being kept in the city.
Online Dog Training
COVID-19 restrictions created new challenges for the kennel but ended up impacting the business in a positive way.
“You can purchase all different types of packages from basic boarding, which includes two walks a day, all the way up to a fully trained dog by the time you pick it up,” said Kristi King, owner of Kristmatic K9 Training and Kennels.
“We have a dog camp program, for example, this board and train. The dog makes its own painting. When the dog goes home, the owner will get that.”
The facility offers a variety of services including unique boarding, service dog training, rehabilitating aggression, agility and obedience. People come from all over to train their dog at Kristmatic K9 Training and Kennels.
The kennel strives to make dogs as comfortable and stress free as possible when kenneling at Kristmatic.
“It’s our goal to give the dogs as much of a homelike experience, so that when we come to the kennel they aren’t stressed out and want to be here,” said King.
Due to the pandemic, the facility had to move all training classes to an online format. This move to online delivery has been well received.
“I’ve been very fortunate,” King said. “My clients are very loyal and almost all of them transferred over to online classes. I teach live classes through Facebook messenger. With everybody being home, I’ve probably tripled my class enrollment.”
King has also been offering an online training classes geared towards children. This class helps children learn to train their dog while being stuck at home.
“It’s been positive for our business, with people at home and switching to online classes more people are training,” added King.
New rules for in-person classes will be implemented to respect social distancing. All dogs and handlers must remain ten feet away from each other. There will also be hand sanitizer and wipes available at various areas.
King will be offering more workshops this year, including one in June with world renowned dog trainer Vit Singh, who is an accomplished trainer in many disciplines of dog training.
“I wanted to give the public the opportunity to work with him because he is really fantastic.”
King is now working alongside the Alberta Government to certify Service dogs and eventually her facility will become a testing site.
All the dogs that King owns have been rescue dogs that were deemed too difficult to rehome. King adopted them and rehabbed them, and they now live permanently with her. She currently has ten dogs, with one puppy coming to her in June.
King also works as an Animal Enforcement Officer for Fairview and has noticed an increase in calls lately, possibly due to people being home more.
With over twenty years of experience training dogs and ten years of training in the Peace Country, King is excited to now be offering homelike dog boarding to Fairview and the surrounding area.
Putting Service Dog Training On Hold
This Memorial Day we honor those who have served our country. But the COVID-19 pandemic is posing new challenges to our nation’s veterans, especially those battling mental health issues.
On a farm in rural Virginia, United States Navy veteran Danique Masingill and her team train service dogs for veterans.
“We custom train the specific triggers for each veteran,” Masingill said.
The program, Leashes of Valor, aims to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, something Masingill struggles with, as well.
“For me it took a long time to get all the pieces into place. It was rough and there’s still crappy days, honestly, like, but that never goes away,” Masingill said. “You just kind of learn how to ride the wave better.”
But Leashes of Valor had to put their program on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve suspended mental health treatment in a way for people that don’t know when this tool they’re waiting for is going to be available to them,” Masingill said.
A new Syracuse University/Military Times poll of more than 4,000 veterans and active service members finds many are worried about the pandemic. They consider COVID-19 a severe threat to public health, the economy, their communities and families.
“Things like a job loss, loss of financial security, in being disconnected and socially isolated, these are all risk factors that only compound and accumulate, you know, in terms of someone’s mental health,” said Nick Armstrong, and Army veteran who authored the report.
Syracuse University plans to continue polling veterans throughout the pandemic to try to ensure they get the resources they need.
Masingill is concerned about the potential setbacks for her fellow veterans.
“People aren’t looking for a handout,” she said. “They’re really just trying to be a part of something, and this currently is preventing them with being a part of something.”
She’s hoping to be able to do her part soon, getting more service dogs to veterans once restrictions are lifted.
Veterans Making Sacrifices
Today, the country honors the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. But for some veterans who returned home safely, their service meant sacrifices that continue to affect them in civilian life.
For local Marine Corps veteran Deanna Gehman, her service meant living her life with post-traumatic stress disorder, which debilitates her to the point where she can’t comfortably leave her home. Now, she finds solace in her husband, Mark, and new service dog, Cleopatra, and is on a journey to living a life without fear.
“You’ve just got to be vulnerable and tell your story because there’s so many people out there who think they’re alone.”
Gehman served in the Marine Corps from 1991-1997, and is considered a 100% disabled veteran. Her PTSD is caused by sexual military trauma.
“I was raped in the Marine Corps in 1996,” she said. “I reported it, but sexual harassment wasn’t big in the ’90s, and it’s an all-boys Marine Corps. I mean, we only had 1% women in the Marine Corps. … They kind of pushed it under the rug … and you’re tough, so you just kind of push it. … And it’s been compounded by multiple years of untreatment. … (I was) too proud.”
Gehman noted pain from the military is sometimes not seen.
“It’s invisible, and the struggles that veterans have, it’s within ourselves,” she said. “It’s a battle every day. … Come to my room at 1 a.m. You have a good night’s sleep, don’t you? I don’t even know what that looks like. I haven’t been to sleep in 20 years.”
After just turning 22 years old, Gehman made the decision to join the military because she “wanted to be part of something bigger” than herself.
“This is 1991, so the first Gulf War is going on and I wanted to help my country,” she said. “I wanted to do more than myself, and it wasn’t about me. … It does take a different breed of person to be in the military, because it’s not a job you can quit. You can’t just say ‘I’m not going to work today’; you have no choice.”
Gehman said she “loved” the Marine Corps and that it has made her who she is today, but added that becoming a civilian is “tough.”
“To try to find where your niche is; I ended up teaching,” she said. “I became an algebra teacher. I like to give, I like to help people. … I only can work about 14 hours a week; I don’t leave the house. (Mark) does all the grocery shopping. I don’t like big crowds and stuff.”
Post-service, Gehman said it takes a “long time” for any veteran to admit that they have a disability.
“I remember when I got my tag, I still parked far away from the disabled … because I didn’t want anybody (saying) ‘She doesn’t look disabled.’ And I didn’t want that stigma,” she said.
“I went to Walmart one time about 10 years ago (and) I left all my groceries there, panicked, and we only lived a mile from Walmart, and (Mark) had to come and get me. It was excruciating. So finally in 2016 they were like ‘You need a service dog,’ and it took me until last year, finally, two and a half years later … we got her.”
Cleopatra is a 15-month-old white Golden Doodle, still in training.
“I didn’t want anybody depending on me and that was an anxiety of mine,” she said. “I didn’t want to depend on anyone else, I don’t want to be disabled; I don’t want that. And then I saw (Cleo), and I was like ‘That’s my dog.'”
Gehman describes her life as a “prison,” saying a service dog will help “a lot.”
“They’re not pets; they help,” she said. “I’m in a prison, but I don’t tell people that. I cannot leave my house, I cannot go to Walmart, I cannot do the things that I’d done before.”
She does, however, go out with her husband, Mark, but said that for the most part she is confined to her house without him or Cleo.
“And I’ve never thought, until just now,” Gehman said, “I know (Mark) loves me and I know that’s OK (to rely on him), but I want to do those things. I want that freedom, and that freedom for him to be able to have friends. (Cleo) will be able to be my wheelchair to someone who can’t walk. My eyes to people who can’t see.”
It took her over 20 years to say “OK, I’m not this tough marine, and I’m going to ask for help,” which is what prompted the pursuance of a service dog, Gehman said.
“I’m a prisoner within my own world,” she said. “And I want friends, I want to go to lunch. I just turned 51, and I want to help people. That’s what I do; I’m a helper, and I can’t do that if I’m here, and I graduate in a year and there’s so much more I can do. There’s so much more that I want to do with my life. I have so much more to live, and I’m limiting myself by not utilizing the tools out there for me, and (Cleo is) my ticket to gaining access out that door; walking out that door without fear and without the hypervigilant.”
Gehman is expected to graduate from Capella University in 2021 with a Doctorate in Adult Education and credits her bright future to her husband and Cleopatra.
“(Mark) saved me. … Going into the Marine Corps I gained confidence, leadership, tenacity and just was able to overcome challenges.”
“What got taken away from me in 1996,” she continued, ” … was trust. I didn’t trust anybody. I had fear that I had that I didn’t realize I had before. I was fearless, and I was vulnerable. … Then after I was stripped of being able to be vulnerable, I was stripped of being able to be myself. I was stripped of being Deanna. I didn’t know who I was anymore.”
Once she met her husband, Gehman said he had the ability to see through “all of that.”
“He started rebuilding that platform back to what I had before,” she said. “There was much he could do to get me where I need to be, and now Cleo can take me out of the house. … Cleo is a steppingstone; it’s a journey.”
Gehman said the “triggers” to her PTSD will always be there, but now she is able to “handle” them with Cleo beside her.
Family With Emotional Support Animals
An Odessa woman and her two daughters are living in tents in the parking lot of Kingston’s Belle Park because they cannot find emergency housing that will accept their emotional support animals.
Kelly Hennessey and her two daughters, ages 12 and 13, left their home in Odessa after feeling unsafe living in the same triplex with a neighbour who was allegedly exhibiting dangerous behaviour and uttering threats against them.
They brought with them Hennessey’s pot-bellied pig and her daughter’s St. Bernard, both registered emotional support animals that the family will not leave behind.
“My daughter has PTSD and anxiety issues from a car crash,” Hennessey said. “I’ve had six hip surgeries and also have anxiety and ADHD. (The animals) are there to support us.”
On the advice of police, Hennessey was put in touch with Lennox and Addington Interval House, who told Hennessey to leave the situation and that they would find her and her daughters emergency housing in a Napanee motel.
Two weeks later, the family was evicted from the motel — Hennessey believes because of her support animals.
Frustrated by the situation, Hennessey purchased camping gear and moved herself and her children into a quarry in Napanee while they waited for emergency housing. But shortly after, they were asked to leave by local police.
From there, when none of the available community shelters would accept the animals, Hennessey was directed to join the tent camping community at Belle Park.
On Friday, the trio and their emotional support animals —a pot-bellied pig and a St. Bernard — arrived at the entrance to Belle Park, where approximately 30 homeless have been living in tents for the past several weeks.
Chrystal Wilson has been offering support to the residents of the tent community most days and raising money online for the community at her project www.kingstondelivers.com.
Wilson was at Belle Park when Hennessey arrived. She immediately took on the role of advocate for the family and started to help them navigate Kingston’s shelter system.
“I’m just a person,” she said. “I just happened to have witnessed how it went down.”
Wilson has been helping Hennessey call local shelters and see how they can get a space. Most won’t take the animals that come along with the Hennessey family, and others are saying the animals would have to be crated indoors, which they have not been trained to do.
“I’ve given up,” Hennessey admitted, in tears. “I just don’t want to fight anymore.”
While Wilson said she feels “relatively safe” at the Belle Park camping site when she’s there volunteering, she doesn’t believe it’s a place for a family to live. There’s no running water and no means for cooking food.
Hennessey said that while the Belle Park tent community has been welcoming, she feels unsafe camping in the lot off of Montreal Street. She said she has had items stolen.
“It’s kind of scary,” she said. “We’ve had our stuff stolen last night — an air bed and some cigarettes. But it’s OK. Someone needed them more than we did.”
On Sunday afternoon, when no shelters had stepped up to assist, Wilson paid for a hotel room for the family out of her own pocket.
“These kids can’t live here,” Wilson said. “No kids should live here.”
But when Wilson went to move the family in late Sunday afternoon, the hotel she had lined up — which was pet friendly — said no to the pot-bellied pig. She later found another hotel that agreed to allow the family to stay.
Wilson has started house hunting for the family, who has ready access to enough funds to pay rent somewhere and who simply need to find a safe, temporary place to escape a violent and dangerous home.
Hennessey described Wilson as “a godsend” during a moment in her life that she had never foreseen.
“When I was asked to leave my home, I was promised housing. It was supposed to be temporary. This was not supposed to … .”
Hennessey broke down.
“There’s such a lack of communication with everything happening right now.”
Hennessey and her children have been prepared to camp until they find a house, if need be.
“My daughter is the victim,” she said. “She should not have to surrender her animal or leave it behind so that we can find a place to live. I’ll move to a campground. They’re family. You’re asking me to choose between my children.”
Retired Military Dog
An Army Sergeant reunited with his Military Working Dog (MWD), now retired, on Saturday.
U.S. Army Sgt. Jake Ferkin was reunited with his Retired MWD, Iskra T160, after being separated for two years. Iskra is a 10-year-old Czech Shepherd who was a Patrol and Explosive Detection Dog. Sgt. Ferkin and Iskra were paired up in February of 2016, and trained for three months before deploying on missions to New York, Jerusalem, Sicily. After the “world tour”, the pair were deployed to Iraq, where they spent the duration of their time together. They were separated in 2018 and it was rough for Sgt. Ferkin. He was comforted knowing they would be reunited once Iskra retired. Mission K9 Rescue picked up Iskra in Ft. Myer, Virginia, and drove her 1,600 miles to Boerne, so the pair could be together again. “I am so excited and thankful to be reconnected with Iskra,” Ferkin said. “I cannot wait for her to be able to enjoy her retirement and have her take her place on Fort Couch.” It is important to honor and protect all of our military heroes; both two and four-footed,” said Kristen Maurer, president of Mission K9 Rescue. “Military Working Dogs have been a vital, life-saving part of our armed services, and they deserve our support when they can no longer work. We’re honored on this Memorial Day Weekend to have been able to make this journey in order for Sgt. Ferkin and Iskra to be reunited.
