Wilma
Melville stood and stared at the wreckage of the Oklahoma City bombing and
could not believe her eyes. The devastation was horrific. She let go of Murphy’s
leash and instructed him to begin sniffing through the rubble in search of signs
of life. The eventual conclusion would be that there were none.
She realized with
significant regret that she had been summoned too late. If only we had been brought in sooner, she thought. She also acknowledged
something else that was painfully obvious: There are far too few search-and-rescue
dogs available today for situations like this. She realized that, going forward,
there would be more and more need for search-and-rescue dogs.
Wilma left
that scene with an ache in her heart and a promise in her mind: “I will find a
way to train 168 dogs to be search and rescue dogs,” she said, “one for every
man, woman and child who died in the Oklahoma City bombing.”
One of the
many lessons from the book Hero Dogs is never underestimate a woman, but
especially, never underestimate this
woman. Wilma Melville, a retired physical education teacher, went home to
southern California and started a nonprofit: Search Dog Foundation.
The fete she
proceeded to accomplish from that day forward would forever change the way dogs
would be trained in search and rescue and how much they would achieve.
Eventually, Wilma’s dogs would be sent by Homeland Security to Ground Zero, Hurricane
Katrina sites, areas in Haiti struck by the earthquake, and dozens more places
large and small where rescuers would use dogs to try to find people buried
alive before it was too late.
Paul Lobo,
who co-wrote the book with Wilma, captures her experiences skillfully, as
if they were happening in real time. You will visualize all too clearly the
colors, the smells and scenes that Wilma’s dogs and handlers experienced.
If you like
dogs, read this book. Even if you are a person like me who has no interest in
dogs whatsoever, you still will be mesmerized by this book. When I closed the
back cover of this book, I was so drawn in by the value of Wilma’s work that I
couldn’t even get up from desk until I made a donation to
SearchDogFoundation.org. That’s how much this book – and the value of Wilma’s
work – moved me. And it will move you too.
Find the book
here
at Amazon.
If you like a good book that keeps you on your toes and surprises you at every turn, please check out my novel, In Fashion's Web on Amazon. It's got 10 5-star reviews!
