Rest now, good boy

Dog that searched for 9/11, Katrina victims dies

With all the terrible things in the world, all the death, it's always something like this that reduces me to tears.

‘A world-class rescue dog’
[Mary] Flood adopted Jake as a 10-month-old puppy. He had been abandoned on a street with a broken leg and a dislocated hip.

“But against all odds he became a world-class rescue dog,” said Flood, a member of Utah Task Force 1, a federal search-and-rescue team that looked for human remains at ground zero.

On the evening of the team’s arrival in New York, Jake walked into a fancy Manhattan restaurant wearing his search-and-rescue vest and was treated to a free steak dinner under a table.

There's more, but this is my favorite part of the story. Some sub-human creep abandoned this poor thing and he was adopted, knit together, loved and gave all he could in return.

Of course, I have a real soft spot for rescues and especially retrievers. But to me, dogs are an example of what's right with the world. And this sweetheart, good ol' Jake, was a truly excellent boy. So when the world loses a Jake, I feel totally okay with getting a little misty and feeling a little loss.