Page 49 of Last Girls Alive

Standing amongst towering pine trees with his ears perked and amber eyes forward, Cisco’s shiny black coat glistened in the light. His muscles tensed. His back. His legs. He waited with all the patience of an expertly trained dog for Katie’s commands. With the anticipated excitement, the dog began to lightly pant—it was like a relief valve.

“We’re set,” came a voice over her walkie-talkie.

Katie pressed the speak button. “Roger that.” She unclipped the six-foot leather leash and snapped on the trailing lead which was about twenty-five feet.

As soon as the lead clicked into Cisco’s harness, he began to bark furiously, wagging his tail. It was difficult for him to stay still, but he had to wait.

There was a piece of a torn black shirt lying across the trail. Katie guided Cisco toward it to make sure he had a good whiff before moving ahead. “Find,” she said.

Cisco was ready to go and began to take Katie down the narrow path, deviating only twice from the track but returning again. She kept him on a short leash.

Cisco’s sniffs were the only sounds in the forest. All the wildlife was strangely quiet as they waited for the potential predator to move or reveal himself. False clues of clothing worn by another person had been planted around the area to challenge the dog’s concentration on the specific track. Cisco sniffed the air in their direction, but didn’t leave his track. He moved quickly and systematically, head down, tail down: focused.

It amazed Katie watching Cisco work. She remembered the first time she saw him in the kennel. Loud incessant barking. Unruly behavior, jumping and growling if anyone got too close to the kennel door. Clearly, he did not want to be there. The training sergeant said no one wanted to work with him and he had even bit one of the recruits. But there was something about the dog that attracted Katie to him. There was a misunderstood quality about Cisco. Maybe black dogs were passed over in the military, just like black dogs in animal shelters. That didn’t deter Katie. She was intrigued and asked to see him. After the first walk in the training yard, she knew that they were going to be a team to be reckoned with. His endless energy, focus, and athletic ability were unlike any dog she had ever worked with. At first, he challenged her authority with barking and nipping. But after a while, all he wanted was to hear commands from her.

Katie watched Cisco work with pride, giving him enough lead, following him around obstacles of trees and off-trail bushes. She wasn’t sure where the decoy was hiding, but that made the experience a little bit more authentic for both the handler and dog. Cisco stopped, head raised, lightly sniffing the open air in the slight breeze that was coming toward him. Katie stood quietly and let the dog do what he was trained to do.

Another a few seconds passed, then Cisco took off through a tangle of low-lying bushes. Katie, running to keep up, thought that maybe Cisco had been confused by the breeze and perhaps some of the deep forest smells, but knew that wasn’t likely.

Pulling her toward a large pine tree, Cisco began barking. As Katie stepped toward the area, she saw the decoy dressed in a full training bite suit stand up with his hands in the air, making aggressive gestures toward them.

“Put your hands behind your head and turn around!” she commanded.

The decoy began walking towards her with a large stick in his hand.

“Drop the weapon now!”

He made simulated stabbing gestures.

“Drop the weapon now!” Katie leaned down and unhooked Cisco’s lead and he instantly ran and then leapt in the air, catching the decoy’s shoulder and dragging him to the ground. “Stay down!” The decoy pretended to struggle. “Stay down!” she repeated.

The heavily protected decoy stopped moving.

“Cisco,aus!”

The dog immediately let go of the decoy and padded back to Katie.

“Good boy,” she said, patting him on the side and giving him his favorite yellow ball.

“Great work,” said Sergeant Blake Hardy as he emerged from a safe distance with another K9 officer.

“Thanks,” Katie said, smiling and a little breathless. Even though it had been a simulation, it still pumped the adrenalin.

“You okay, Rick?” said Hardy.

“Oh yeah,” he said, getting to his feet. “Nice work. I thought he was going to flip me on my head for a split second.”

Everyone laughed.

“Cisco is great to show everyone else how it should be done,” said the sergeant.

“Thank you, Sergeant, for letting us participate. Cisco has been a bit antsy with my schedule lately.”

“I heard that you’re working two homicides,” said Hardy.

“Yeah,” she said, feeling uncomfortable talking about a current investigation with other officers.

“I’ve heard good things about your work—glad you decided to stay on here at the sheriff’s department.”