In the Ukrainian city of Pavlograd was buried a Ukrainian soldier who had been lost after not announcing to his team where he was going. In the search for the soldier, the Ukrainian search and rescue team, Antares, used their trained search and rescue dogs to locate the lost soldier.
The search and rescue team entered a yard where only a garage remained. What was once a house, a shed, and fencing was in pieces – everything was destroyed. This is when the search and rescue service sets Sparky to work.
The 10-year-old dog sparky was starting to observe the area when suddenly, by a force only known to her, she whipped around and concentrated on an area that to the human eye could not possibly be a burial site. Sparky signaled to the rescue team that she had found the spot, but the rescue team did not believe her. Sparky was persistent, sticking her nose to the ground and insisting that she had found the burial site. The Ukrainian crew Antares pulled sparky from the site and moved along, leaving the site and returning to their base.
Sparky and her owner remained at the site and when Sparky continued to insist on having found the spot, her commander listened. The commander called the rescue team to return to the site and they began to dig at the spot that Sparky had signaled. As the excavation bucket reached 3ft in the ground they found nothing, prompting the rescue team to send in a separate dog to confirm Sparky’s initial signal. The second rescue canine, Besha, continued where Sparky had left off and signaled to the same position that Sparky had initially led them. After digging nearly 5ft below the surface the rescue team began to discuss alternatives and wonder why two dogs had signaled to the same location. As they were discussing their next moves Besha jumped into the pit and began to dig herself.
Besha’s huge paws put an end to their search as she dug a little bit deeper. Under a layer of rocks and bricks, covered in linoleum Besha located the burial site.
The hard work of the dogs lending assistance to the search and rescue team allowed the team to bring back the Ukrainian soldier from possibly having been lost forever.
Dogs are always there for us, whether we deserve it or not. We should be there for them. Help us bring familes back together at MV4UK.com/donate
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