Tag Archives: Rescue dogs

Momo. Not an IT.

2 Comments Posted by on March 17, 2011

 

Momo is Japanese for peach. Photo: Reuters

Momo weighs 6.6 pounds, is seven years old and has joined the Japanese police force in order to help recover bodies. She is, apparently, the world’s smallest police dog.

According to the Guardian, “Nara’s prefectural police department operates an equal opportunities canine employment policy, but officials admitted that Momo’s elevation to the ranks of police dog had taken them by surprise. “Any breed of dog can be entered to become a police dog in the search-and-rescue division,” a police spokesman told Reuters. But he added: “It’s quite unusual.”"

The UK’s Daily Mail quoted a Nara police department official: “‘We would like it to work hard by taking advantage of its small size.”

Poor Momo is not an “it.” I hope it’s just poor translation.

Watch a video of HER running and also wearing a hooded jacket..

Also….RILEY is in the news. I hope his Mrs Supervisor is happy.

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Dear Riley….and your firefighter dad

2 Comments Posted by on March 15, 2011

SB County Firefighter Eric Gray and Search Dog Riley debark at Misawa Air Force Base in Japan. Credit: SBFD

Not long ago I was stopped for speeding on the 101 Freeway. I started chatting with the cop. I told him that my brother was a fireman…I tried to not make it obvious but I was hoping for some sort of civic-brotherhood-inspired-leniency. It had the opposite effect. He started getting agitated, his voice rose.

“I hate fireman,” he said. “Everyone loves them. Do you know who loves cops? NO ONE. Anytime I pull someone over, they dread seeing me. Do you know what that feels like? What that does to a person?”

“Um, no sir.”

“Firemen!” he threw his hands in the air, “Who is so stupid that they actually run INTO a burning building, not out of it?!”

In the end, I didn’t get the ticket. But he’s right. My brother is beloved. And not just by me. So are the other men and women he works with. And dogs. Especially the dogs. Riley is a rescue dog that works with Eric Gray, a fireman with the Santa Barbara Fire Department. Yesterday he got off a plane in Japan to start helping with rescue efforts.

In 2009, a young girl named Vulan read about Riley in the paper. She lives in Lompoc, California. This was the letter she sent to him.

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