One Saturday in October of 2019 Kato and I had the pleasure of meeting up with Jim Corbett of Courageous Tails, to shoot photos for the 2020 edition of Beyond The Search - A Closer look at our Nation's Search and Rescue Dogs.
The fall leaves were out, stories were told and in an afternoon we had made new friends in Jim and his wife Meaghan.
The book highlights five Search and Rescue K9 teams across the country, and as Courageous Tails is a non-profit, proceeds are split between the featured teams to help with gear and training costs in pursuit of their missions.
Search and Rescue across the country is largely a volunteer, self-funded passion project (and as a discipline K9 is no different), so this financial support is incredibly appreciated and ends up being stretched as far as it can possibly go.
Jim uses his vacation time away from his job in federal law enforcement to operate and manage Courageous Tails, producing a new (and absolutely gorgeous, coffee table worthy) edition each year.
My and Kato's role in search and rescue is as the K9 unit for BUSAR, a team that supplements resources in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. So, when we aren't training your dogs in obedience, tracking, protection work, scent detection or to be a service animal, we are generally found training and operating in the park. As such and as always, your support is greatly appreciated as it has a direct impact on our ability to train, procure needed gear and travel to learn and enhance our capabilities as a team.
Check out the book (the back cover is the inspiration for the title of this post...) and let us know if you'd like your copy signed by Kato, and we'll figure out a way to make that happen.
Ben and Kato đž
