One of many reasons that I walk every morning I am off work is to be prepared for days like today. Already last night an activation for CERT came out for a man with altzheimers that was missing in Caddo Mills. I was at work so there was no chance I could respond. But as the day came, no text about subject found or stand down came so I was thinking that maybe they would continue the search today. I didn’t have any more information when I went to bed so I had planned to take care of my house, go to the barn, walk and get an oilchange on my car. But when I woke up at 4am I quickly had to change my plans. A textmessage said that search would resume at 7:30 am. Sorry dogs, no walk for y’all this morning. I felt quite bad leaving the dogs again when I had planned spending most of the day with them as they have been alone so much lately!
Yes, It is voluntary but if it was me that was missing or anyone in my family or friends that needed to be searched for, I would appreciate every single one who came and helped! So off I went. I made up my mind before coming to the staging area that i had to leave at 3pm at the latest to be able to swing by the horses before heading home to bed.

It is always a lot of “hurry up and wait” with this situations. New information comes in, has to be processed and considered and a new plan or strategy may have to be taken into place. I was assigned to be with K9 Red. Yes, the dog’s name and color is Red…

When walking with a K9 team my assignment is to follow along and make sure they are safe and radio back any information to incident command. I am assisting the handler with whatever she needs basically. And this is when all my walking comes into very good use. Some of these dogs runs instead of walks and you have to keep up with them. It is hot and the terrain is often heavy brush or uneven. It is not just an easy path to walk straight forward. And sometimes you meet things like big bulls in the middle of the woods. But that went well thankfully.

We went out on two different area searches and all the dogs marked very similar. The problem was that it was in an area that we didn’t think the subject was able to reach. It would turn out that the subject wasn’t even close to that location.

I was able to keep my plan on leaving at 3pm. I was exhausted. Caddo Mills PD had ordered food for us from Subway and that was just awesome so hungry was the last thing I was. We also had water in loads thankfully and I had brought some Gatorade. But I have been working for 4 days straight, woke up at 4 am and got ready and left the house. Then walk in 95 degrees with full clothing on. Yeah, it was HOT. I don’t think I would be able to do another search. A lot of people had read online about it and came out to help search so there was plenty of people on the ground looking. And, about half an hour after I left I got a message that the subject was found alive and well. That’s all that matters! At that point he had been missing for around 32 hours! That is heck of a lot of time for an 84ish year old man! I was a little bummed that I wasn’t there when the news broke that he was found. That would have been fun. But he is safe!

I am so done now. So tired and exhausted. I did the shortest visit ever at the horses on my way home. Just gave them their feed and left. My head was pounding from the heat. Heading to bed now since the alarm is kicking off early for another two days. Can’t wait for the weekend. I need three days of rest now. I need to breath! And sleep! My body is so sore from working in old trucks the last week and all this walking!