The Search Dog Foundation based in Ojai, California sent a dozen teams from around the country to Japan.

The team that flew on a chartered plane to a US Navy Base in Japan and then drove six hours to get to the most devastated areas.

Some of the dogs are credited with finding people buried alive in Haiti.

They hope to find survivors in Japan too but this time they have to take extra safety precautions because of the nuclear crisis.

Debra Tosch the Executive Director of the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, says every team that goes out has an individual monitor measuring radiation levels so they know where to go and where not to go.

They dogs will keep searching as long as there is a chance they can find people still alive in the debris.

Thanks to her dog, Sam, there’s no mischief that 11-year old Joy Cahill can get away with.

You see, Sam, a 3-year-old Labrador/spaniel, is not only Joy’s canine playmate he is also her service dog.

Joy, born with Down syndrome, also suffers from respiratory distress and epilepsy. She has supplemental oxygen and a feeding tube. A seizure affected Joy’s ability to walk and she required physical therapy.

“He’s gotten to know her norm,” said Denise Cahill, Joy’s mother. “So when something is not normal, he reacts. He also doesn’t let Joy do anything she’s not supposed to be doing. We call him ‘our built-in little tattler.’ ”

It was a few months ago that Denise learned that Joy can be as mischievous
as any child. Joy, who’s not highly verbal and sleeps with oxygen and a machine that measures her heart rate, learned how to switch off her machines when everyone was sleeping and also discovered the fun of leaving the house when other family members are occupied .

That was when Denise began researching service dogs and found Sam, a rescue dog through Midwest Assistance Dogs Inc.

Sam, who now goes everywhere with Joy, not only senses when she is about to have a seizure, but also, mysteriously, when her oxygen levels are low. And along with constantly monitoring her health, Sam does not put up with Joy’s shenanigans.

“The first week we were home, he came out of her room at 3 a.m. and nudged me,” Denise said. “She had shut off her machines.”

Currently it appears that along with being her service dog, Sam has benefited Joy in other unexpected ways. Having to give Sam commands, Joy’s verbal and social skills have improved. And since she is responsible for Sam’s basic care such as brushing his coat and feeding him, Joy has also progressed in physical therapy and grown in her ability to assume responsibility,

Denise acknowledges how hard Sam works and how much she wants to give him a break, “but when (Joy) comes home, it’s like they haven’t seen each other for three days.”

By Elaine Furst For Dog Files

By Elaine Furst For Dog Files

DreamWorks has picked up the film rights to writer/cartoonist/Pulitzer Prize winner Berkeley Breathed’s children’s book, Flawed Dogs: The Year-End Leftovers at the Piddleton ‘Last Chance’ Dog Pound’.

Featuring artwork that is reminiscent of Salavador Dali’s surreal, almost psychedelic style, Flawed Dogs is an illustrated tale of doggy “undesirables.”

In a released statement, Alex Schwartz, head of DreamWorks development, said: “In Flawed Dogs, we have a dog movie that has edge as well as heart, which will be inspired by the singularly brilliant visual and comedic sensibility of Berkeley Breathed. At DreamWorks animation we are excited to work with him on what we believe to be a universally appealing story that captures the unique and profound relationship between humans and their dogs.”
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Breathed is best known for his long-running comic strip, Bloom County.

And, yet, that is the comparison that’s made. You would think from the commentary that Vick was some poor kid who got caught swiping something so he could get something to eat. You would think he had on the spur of the moment stolen a car, gone for a joy ride — and collided with a police car at an intersection. You would think that he was anything other than in immensely gifted and immensely rich professional athlete who got a signing bonus of $37 million and had endorsement deals from Nike, Coca-Cola, Kraft and others. Vick staged dog fights and killed dogs not because he had to, but because he chose to. He’s a thug.

Dog fighting was Vick’s hobby. He had been warned about it. His own father had told him to stop. He persisted because, as with many great athletes, he was never held accountable. A nation of jock-sniffers always looks away when a great athlete does something wrong. Nothing is an important as winning — we all know that — and Vick was and is a winner.

The sanctimony regarding this dog killer is sickening. He was wantonly cruel, not only pitting dogs against one another in fights, but drowning poor performers. Didn’t he know this was cruel? Didn’t he know wounded dogs were in pain? Is he so stupid he didn’t notice the blood, the torn skin, the…? Oh, forget it! The man’s an animal himself.

Now Vick has punched all the tickets on the road to rehabilitation. He is contrite. He loves pooches. He might even get a dog himself. How much of this is genuine and how much is synthetic I leave to you. But I’ll tell you this. Vick got a second chance not because he deserves it but because he can play football. This is the lesson we can all take from this sorry episode. It’s one thing to be sorry. It’s much better to hit your man in the end zone.