Search dog's final mission
Have tissues ready 
Tears flow watching search dog's final mission, including ours
Machiko (also called Mishi), a member of the Massachusetts Canine Rescue Team, was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone cancer, WCVB reports. Handlers made the difficult decision to put the 5-year-old black Labrador to sleep. But before they did, they conducted one last search mission with her inside Hopkinton State Park on Tuesday night. The search wasn't real — a member of the team pretended to be in need of rescue — but Mishi, only able to run on three legs due to the cancer, participated with incredible gusto. Footage of the ceremonial search was about as emotional as it gets. Mishi's handler Russ Doucette told WCVB, "She's my partner, she's my friend, and she's a family member." While fighting back tears, Cheryl Oetting, another handler, told the TV station, "When you train a search dog, you spend thousands of hours together. It creates a bond that's very strong." Mishi was scheduled to be put to sleep on Wednesday morning, according to WCVB. Doucette told the station, "I hope that the story gets out about how hard these people work, and how much they sacrifice to get themselves and their dogs ready to help people that do get lost."
VIDEO:
http://screen.yahoo.com/sick-search-dog-goes-final-042652614.html
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his right front leg. We first tried laser treatments and I looked into the cost of surgery/chemo. Because of the location of the tumor and the diameter of his leg, surgery was possible but would have taken many reconstruction efforts as well. I opted for amputation of the leg. He's now very happy and runs and plays like normal.
furbaby. It's amazing how well dogs adjust to losing a leg.
I knew a case similar to the one in this story - a friend's 5 year old Golden Retriever also had an aggressive form of cancer. It was first detected in the leg and even after some treatment it continued to spread. He was euthanized too