Kingston 01/10
Dear Friend and Reader:

Yesterday after sending out the link to Small World Stories, I took off with Dani to go visit the Grandmother Land in High Falls, one of my Meccas in the Hudson Valley. The plan was to sit by the stream and reconnect with the level of technology more readily accessible to trees.

The land belongs to my friend Karen, and when we pulled up she was standing outside with her friend Kyle. I told her why I was there, and she and Kyle looked at one another with a gleam in their eye.

"What?" I asked. They obviously had an agenda. I couldn't wait to hear it.

It turned out that they wanted to practice finding people with their search and rescue dogs, and we were going to be who they found. On the Grandmother Land, you don't necessarily just go hiking...there is sometimes a little job to do. (Usually it involves booting trespassers who wander in from the Mohonk Preserve.)

Kyle handed me a yellow walkie-talkie and we strolled off into the wilderness, onto about 100 acres on the east side of Clove Road. Basically, we would be playing airscent canine hide and seek. The first dog to find us would be Suki, a girlfriend of mine. She's an 18-month-old Doberman. The routine was, she would find us, go back to Karen and Kyle, then find us again and basically lead them to us. "Don't act too friendly when she gets there, don't get too excited," Karen explained. This was business, not pleasure.

From the time we radioed our approximate location -- somewhere near the old campsite -- it took her less than 15 minutes till I felt full-on puppy kiss on the mouth. Then she bolted. Then she was back; followed by people, who gave us dog treats to give her. Part of the training game is, the test subjects give the dog the rewards so that they are motivated to find the next one. Of course, if you're out there actually lost, dehydrated and delirious somewhere and you're found by a search dog, you're not going to have dog treats, but they don't know that. Unless of course they do, and then the joke is on us.

Next, it was Quax's turn. Karen and Kyle walked back back up to the truck, and switched dogs. We moved someplace new, and waited there. This took about 10 minutes to suddenly find ourselves with a huge, wet, chilly German shepherd nose thrust in our faces; then he left, then he was back, with his people. His motivational treat was a game of tug of war. Suki likes food and affection; Quax likes a good fight. The photo above is that moment.

If you or an elderly relative with Alzheimer's is ever lost in the woods, this is approximately who is going to find you: a volunteer search and rescue team. Some dogs specialize in airscent for live subjects; both Suki and Quax have companions who are being trained to find cadavers. Their owners make a considerable investment of time, effort, money and devotion to learn this skill and keep it sharp for when the phone rings at 3:30 am.

Screening for a search and rescue dogs starts at about 12 weeks old. The dogs need to be friendly to people and have high motivation, referred to as 'drive'. They are trained in what I call Dog College twice a month, and practice two to three times a week. I believe that all dogs need jobs. This is a great one. If you're curious about search and rescue, here is a link.

Anyway -- I am thrilled that this nearly three-month full-time journey of Small World Stories has reached its temporary conclusion.

Subscribers -- catch you tomorrow with a new edition of Planet Waves Astrology news, featuring an article called "The Sprint to 2012."

Till then,