A second mission materializes on the same day when a group of our brigands are already deployed on a first mission in the Pecos. Only a single brigand, Da Mule, is available for this second mission in the rural neighborhood around Brazos Falls. A wood gatherer had gone out from her home in the morning and not returned. After a brief misdirection — where google maps directs our team to cross a fjord that was impassible due to a swelling river – our solo brigand arrives at incident base, the local volunteer fire department. Wonderful neighbors have rallied searching for our subject, which is good as SAR teams are shorthanded due to the other ongoing rescue in the Pecos.
Da Mule is paired as a K9 support to Los Alamos’s Pajarito K9 Jessie, and are given the assignment to start at the home of the subject, talk to the family, introduce Jessie (so she knows who’s scent she’s not following), pick up scent and follow. At the home, we talk with the family, getting some vital information about our subject, pick up her coat to use as a scent article and begin our scent search from the home. Jessie does a wonderful job around the perimeter of the property giving strong negative signals of where our subject did not go (sometimes these clues can be as helpful, or even more than where the subject might have gone), and then takes off down the driveway on a strong scent. However, we only get 50 meters on the trail when we are told over the radio to return to base – our subject had been found by neighbors. Evidently, as it dark and cold, she had started to get more worried and scared, approaching a strange home and asking for help, nearly 4 miles from where we had started.
Returning to base, we witnessed a happy reunion of our subject and her family. And Jessie got to track and find the subject there at the fire station (much to the family’s delight). After a quick debrief and drive home, we arrive for an early night (only around 1 am). Once again, neighbors can be great!