Dog Daily News

Kyra needs your help!

Kyra, an endearing yellow Lab whose lifetime has been filled with helping find missing people, now is in great need of help herself.

The beautiful Minnesota girl has taken part in more than 50 search-and-rescue operations during her career. An article in the Pioneer Press says Kyla has “searched lakes, woodlands, forges, valleys and riverbanks. Trained to track human scent, dead or alive, she has located presumed suicide and homicide victims.”  Kyra and her person, Wendy Dean, have assisted law enforcement agencies in tracking down everyone from missing children to missing seniors. And they don’t get paid for the work they do. They do it because they want to help. (Kyra might also do it for treats. We don’t know the details, but as dogs, we know what it would take to get us to want to do that kind of work.)

During a recent search for a missing teen, Kyra suffered something called a cranial curiae ligament tear. We Dog Daily News staffers have no idea what that is (hey, we’re dogs, not doctors), but we do know it is crippling, and requires a $6,000 operation. Kyra’s person, who’s posing with her in that patriotic picture above, doesn’t have that kind of money. She works in the accounts-payable department of a landscaping firm. They don’t exactly grow money on trees there, unfortunately.

If you have a few spare bucks lining your wallet, go to the website for the Northstar Search and Rescue Dog Association and click on the link toward the top of the page that says Donate (to Kyra’s Vet Fund). We staffers, who also get paid nothing at this point, are pitching in a few dollars for this most worthy cause. We hope you do, too.