America's canine hero to be chosen by Internet vote

AP | 4/23/03 | VERENA DOBNIK

[kattracks]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Just after Sept. 11, 2001, the moist nose of a dog named Jake searched for signs of life at ground zero, his sore paws scaling heaps of jagged rubble night after night -- in vain.

Now the black Labrador from Utah is up for an international award: Paws to Recognize, honoring working dogs' contributions to humanity.

Jake is among six nominees for U.S. National Canine Hero Dog -- to be chosen by the general public voting on the Internet. The winning dog is to be recognized in Washington, D.C., with a cement paw print at a Hollywood-style canine Walk of Fame.

Jake and his owner, Mary Flood, have helped set the standard in urban search-and-rescue.

"It's a demanding environment requiring the ability to search amid chaos, distractions and hazards, day after day," says the financial investment adviser from Salt Lake City, who takes Jake with her to the office.

After all, she and the dog are on 24-hour call, year round, to respond to disasters as members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Utah Task Force 1, one of FEMA's 27 search-and-rescue units, and as volunteers for Utah's Rocky Mountain Rescue Dogs.

Last fall, Jake was called to help search a Utah town and surrounding fields for a missing 5-year-old autistic boy. The child was eventually found safe.

Flood and her dog are certified as a FEMA Canine Search Specialist team. The canine was tested for obedience, for his ability to bark repeatedly when a victim's scent is found and for his agility -- like climbing a ladder, then walking across a wobbly plank 6 feet above ground.

Jake is a four-legged mirror to the humans he's out to save: He's a survivor, too.

Flood adopted him about six years ago after he was abandoned on a street, a Lab puppy with a broken leg and a dislocated hip. He's now a muscular 82-pound animal trained to tackle disasters like building collapses, earthquakes and floods.

For the first Paws to Recognize, sponsored by Pedigree Food for Dogs and Wal-Mart, the public is invited to vote on a Web site that will post the dogs' biographies and images within two weeks.

Puerto Rico and nine foreign countries are choosing their own outstanding service canines: Argentina, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Mexico and South Korea.

The other U.S. nominees are: Roselle, a cream-colored Labrador from Novato, Calif., who guided her blind master through fiery debris to safety from the 78th floor of a World Trade Center tower on Sept. 11; Peekaboo, a Papillon from Tucson, Ariz., who assists a woman suffering from terminal vascular disease; Zorro, a mixed-breed dog from Seattle whose healing powers inspired pets-as-partners medical therapy programs; Crazy Joe, a yellow Labrador working as a Homeland Security narcotics detector at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport; and Remington, a Capitol Hill explosives-sniffing yellow Labrador who searches the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

All six dogs will be recognized with medals at the Washington headquarters of The Humane Society of the United State, the animal advocacy organization, in late August.

Jake was nominated by the National Association for Search And Rescue, a Chantilly, Va.-based not-for-profit that aims to advance search-and-rescue methods.

The Sept. 11 effort has turned him into "a more serious dog," says Flood.

Still, Flood says, he has "three distinct personalities: 'I am Jake the search dog -- stay out of my way.' Then, 'I am Jake the public dog' -- when he puts on his blue search-dog vest, it means we're going to talk about what we do. He sticks out his paw, or even high-fives, and he lets kids pat him."

And then there's the private Jake.

In his wood-frame home overlooking the Great Salt Lake, Flood jokes, "that's where we boss Mary around, steal food and lie around on the bed."

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On the Net:

Paws to Recognize: http://www.pedigree.com

Humane Society: http://www.hsus.org

[fly_so_free]

There is a beautiful and moving tribute to the canine hero's of 9/11 here. http://www.fredstone.com/grateful.htm I was suprised to read that President Bush has this same poster hanging in the White House. I have it hanging in my living room. A month or so after 9/11, we went to the horse races and they were selling them to benefit the NY Fire Department. You can't look at it too long though, it will make you cry. Fred Stone is a great artist. Take a good look at the eyes of the dog in the painting.