Free Republic

Rupee was hour away from dying when Joanne Lefson saved him; trek to 17,598 feet took 10 days and helps raise awareness of dog adoptions. Rupee, a stray dog that was rescued from a dumpsite in Ladakh, Northern India, and was said to be less than an hour away from death, has become what is believed to be the first dog to reach Mount Everest base camp, located at an elevation of 17,598 feet. The dog was just 8 months old—starving, dehydrated, and extremely weak—when Joanne Lefson adopted the pup, according to the U.K. Daily Mail. She nursed him back...

Eleven days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Debra Tosch arrived at Ground Zero with her partner Abby to search for survivors. “We turned this one corner and there it was: the collapsed towers. It was overwhelming, like, where do you even start?” Tosch recalls. Abby, a black Labrador trained to lead rescue teams to trapped victims in disaster areas, was more assured. “She knew it was time to search,” says Tosch, the executive director of the Search Dog Foundation. As one of 13 SDF teams deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the Trade Center...

Hercules, a five year old boxer, saved his family from a roof collapse in their Long Island home after severe snow cause the roof to come crashing down. In the wake of severe snow storms that have struck the New York area, authorities are now urging property owners to clear the snow off their roofs to prevent possible harm and injury. The event began Saturday night when the normally quiet Hercules began to bark as the Hatzis family slept reports Newsday. His barks alerted the family to ominous cracking sounds from their garage, prompting the family to rescue their car...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WILSON, Afghanistan - Abandoned in the village of Sangisar after a fierce firefight a month ago, two tiny puppies have found a safe haven with Canadian troops at this remote base in the volatile Zhari district. Dubbed Mira - short for Miracle - after barely missing a landmine while riding with her rescuers in an armoured Nyala vehicle near the town of Howz-e-Madad, the spunky white she-pup is breathing new life into the Operational Mentoring Liaison Team's compound at Forward Operating Base Wilson. "Everyone says I look after her but it's not just me. It's the whole...

Stryker worked some of the most high-profile cases in our area. After the terrorist plane crash into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 the German Shephard--along with his handler, Park Police Officer Alice Hanan, searched through the rubble brought from the building. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) says Stryker made 108 finds in the disaster’s aftermath. Stryker helped search for missing persons Michelle Dorr, Susan Stottmeister and Chandra Levy. He was also brought in after the water taxi accident in Baltimore Harbor in 2004. The dog also helped in 113 drug arrests that resulted in $152,923 worth...

Five years later, many Americans still find it hard to face the assault on humanity that took place Sept. 11, 2001. In Nona Kilgore Bauer's impressive book "Dog Heroes of September 11th, A Tribute to America's Search and Rescue Dogs," the author introduces more than 75 highly trained dogs from across the country who helped bring closure to families affected by the terrorist attacks. Interviews with owners reveal that, for many dogs, a reward for a rescue can be a spirited game of tug. Yet with fewer than two dozen survivors found and more than 2,000 killed, the dogs who...