Prison Dogs by Larry Stafford

Author:Larry Stafford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2019-07-18T14:39:47+00:00

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3 Vapor Wake is a patented breeding and training program for dogs who are trained to identify persons who are carrying explosive devices in public areas.

Chapter Nine: Dream Land

Bay Correctional Facility, 2013

Momma wanted me to be a preacher. I told her coachin’ and preachin’ were a lot alike.

Bear Bryant

Jones sat on his bunk looking at the two dogs asleep in their crates. Jones and his cell mate had worked with these two dogs for months. Tomorrow a van from Auburn University would pick the dogs up and take them to Anniston, Alabama for the next phase of training. With luck they would both be bomb detection dogs one day. Jones looked at Biscuit, curled up with her nose covered by her tail. Whoever named her got it right. Jones thought she looked like a big old biscuit, maybe a little under cooked, but still, she was a pretty yellow Lab. The University representative who brought this litter of dogs to the prison said they were a mix of Labrador retrievers from Australia, known for their health, and American Labs, who were good hunters. The rep also said their Vet school was recording all of the dogs’ genetic markers. They were determined to breed the best detection dogs in the world.

Jones turned his eyes to the large crate that housed Hero.

“Damn,” he thought. “I won’t miss that crate.” Hero was a beast. “He must be part Great Dane.” That’s what everyone said anyhow.

No one bred Hero to be special. He came straight out of the dog pound. Jones shook his head. He worried that Hero might not make it through the next level of training. He doubted if Hero would ever be a bomb dog.

“He’s just too impulsive.” Jones said that out loud, but no one was listening. His cell mate’s snores made an ungodly sound. Jones lay back on his own bunk. His thoughts returned to the dogs.

“We did the best we could with these two. They are on their own now. Hero is a good one — and smart. I hope they make him a therapy dog for soldiers. He’s too damn big to be leading a blind person around.” Jones closed his eyes and tried to sleep.

Jones’ instincts about the dogs were on the mark. Service dog training is specific and difficult. Thirty percent of the dogs don’t make it. They wind up as pets in someone’s home. The evaluator who watched Biscuit and Hero go through their paces had a practiced eye. She had no sentimental attachment for any of these dogs. Her first priority was for bomb dogs. When she saw Hero fail to return to the side of the handler on command, the evaluator made a note on her sheet and moved to the next dog. Hero would never see Anniston.

In a city not too far from the prison, a single-parent mother named Donna lived with her two children. She had a high-pressure job as a junior executive in the transportation industry with CSX in Jacksonville.

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