Family: Rescue dog needing help now

By Melissa Dunson
THE JOPLIN GLOBE (JOPLIN, Mo.)

SAGINAW, Mo. May 22, 2008 02:01 pm

— Molly showed up after a tornado leveled much of Pierce City on May 4, 2003. She was there to join the search for survivors.
She also went to Carl Junction about the same time, again to search for people who might have been trapped in their storm-demolished homes.
She helped search for 16-year-old Weston Powell’s body last summer in a swollen Spring River.
And Molly was there to identify the vehicle that allegedly transported 9-year-old murder victim Rowan Ford’s body when police were searching for the missing girl last fall.
Now, Molly needs help.
Molly, a 5-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever, is a Newton County search-and-rescue dog. She is scheduled for surgery Thursday at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine. She is having a pacemaker installed that may allow her to continue providing her service.
Molly and her owners, trainers and handlers, Allen and Alicia Brown, of Saginaw, are volunteers with the Newton County K-9 search-and-rescue team.
Allen Brown works as a paramedic, Alicia Brown as a nurse. They have put in hundreds of hours searching for bodies in emergencies. The K-9 search-and-rescue unit is composed of volunteers and doesn’t have a budget. Allen Brown said the few fund-raisers the group holds each year go to pay for equipment maintenance.
Medtronic, a medical technology company, offered to donate the pacemaker Wednesday, but the surgery, vet and travel costs could stack up to more than $2,000. For the Browns, the decision to either put their dog to sleep or have the expensive surgery was difficult.
“So many people have lost their homes recently, I feel bad asking for anything,” Alicia Brown said. “We’re so good at helping out our community. We’re just not very good at accepting any help ourselves.”
Patrice Graham, another member of the Newton County K-9 search-and-rescue team, thinks that is just wrong.
“I know that everyone is tight, but these people do a lot of volunteer work,” Graham said.
The K-9 unit has been part of the volunteer Newton County search-and-rescue team for the past two years. The unit has five dogs certified and three others in training.
The Browns’ other rescue dog, 13-year-old Hope, helped locate several bodies after the May 10 tornado struck at Iris Road and Highway 43.
Cost of new dog
It takes about two years to train a search-and-rescue dog in both live body and cadaver retrieval, and it costs between $10,000 and $20,000 to buy one that is already trained, Graham said.
Veterinarians are predicting that if Molly’s pacemaker surgery is successful, she could go back to work in two months and could work for many more years.
“If she could save one more life or recover one more body for a family, it would be worth it,” Graham said.
Molly has always been a “ball crazy,” energetic dog who daily lives up to her full name, The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Allen Brown said she runs to the door as soon as he or his wife put on rescue gear.
But right before the May 10 tornadoes that hit Northeast Oklahoma and Southwest Missouri, something changed. Molly was tired, slow and out of breath. Alicia Brown said vets now think she had a heart attack.
A local vet discovered that Molly’s heart rate was half what it was supposed to be and sent the Browns to a Springfield vet, who diagnosed complete heart blockage. The top half and bottom half of Molly’s heart are not communicating electrically.
“At night, she has been curling up on the couch with me and just looks at me like, ‘Mom, something’s wrong, take care of me,’” Alicia Brown said. “I tell her, ‘I’m tryin’.’ I just want her better.”
On Tuesday night, Molly’s heart rate was a dismal 38, instead of the normal 80, and the Browns decided they couldn’t wait. Allen Brown drove Molly to Columbia in the middle of the night so she could be under a vet’s care.
The Browns have five dogs, but only Molly and Hope are search-and-rescue animals. Although Alicia Brown has been training dogs for 18 years, Molly is special to the couple. She is the first dog they got together. They bought her as an 8-week-old puppy at a Children’s Miracle Network fund-raiser. She looked like a chocolate puffball, Allen Brown said, and was irresistible.
“When you’re looking for a search-and-rescue dog, you look for the puppy that you wouldn’t want in your house,” he said. “You look for the dog that will obsess over a toy. You want that dog that will run after the ball 250 times, come back looking completely exhausted, and then when you throw it again, will go that 251st time. That is The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
“How do you describe Molly? She’s probably the sweetest dog you’ll meet in your whole life. She loves kids and is completely docile.”
Alicia Brown said Molly also is sensitive when dealing with cadavers. She said that during the Rowan Ford case, Molly identified the exact spot in the vehicle where the girl’s body had been, then jumped in Alicia Brown’s arms and shook. For the next two weeks, Molly was a constant companion to the Browns’ 5-year-old daughter.
“I’ve never seen my dogs act like that before,” Alicia Brown said. “People don’t realize how sensitive they are. Molly is a soft dog and very sympathetic.”



Melissa Dunson writes for The Joplin (Mo.) Globe.


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Fund raising

Patrice Graham, a member of the Newton County K-9 search-and-rescue team, has opened a fund-raising account under the name Search Dog Molly Fund at Southwest Missouri Bank at 32nd Street and Indiana Avenue. So far, she has raised about $500.

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