Trooper Swisher was on US 24 in Wabash County when he noticed that cars on the road ahead of him seemed to be swerving to avoid hitting something in the road.  When he got closer to where this was happening, he noticed that people were doing everything they could to avoid hitting a dog that was loose, and weaving through traffic.

That’s when Swisher let out a couple of blasts of his cruiser’s air horn.  This startled the dog a bit, but got her to move onto the median and away from traffic.  Trooper Swisher then drove onto the median, opened up his door, and the dog jumped in.

It turns out that the dog had escaped from a nearby kennel.  Her name was Sadie, and thankfully, she had valid identification tags, with her vet listed on them.  This allowed Sadie to be safely returned to her humans, without the usually insane amount of extra work of finding out who they are in the first place.

Trooper Swisher said that he was just happy that nothing bad happened to the dog, and that no one else was injured in the process.  Way to go Trooper Swisher!  You’re a true hero!

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Most elementary schools have programs to teach kids about fire prevention and safety.  But the kids in Indiana get to learn about these things in a much more fun way, thanks to retired firefighter Jeff Owens and his black Labs.

Owens began The Kasey Program in 1995, and has been training and teaching for the last 20 years.  It started with the original Kasey, who has since died.  There are currently three black Labs in the program – senior KD, 4-year-old Kohl, and 14-week-old Kali.  KD will soon be retiring, and Kohl will be taking over.

The dogs show kids how to check a door to see if it’s hot, how to crawl below smoke, and how to stop, drop and roll.  They are shown by Owens what to do if they find lighters and matches, and told to make sure they have two exits from every room and a place to meet up once everyone gets out.

The firefighter uses songs to help the kids remember what they learn.  So far The Kasey Program has saved at least 15 lives.  The program has been mostly limited to schools in the Indianapolis area, but Owens and the dogs will soon be on the road to visit schools nationwide.

“I can prevent a firefighter from having to pull a child out,” Owens says.  “And I know how traumatizing it is to the firefighters, let alone the trauma sustained by the families.  So that’s what drives me to go out and teach as much as I do.”

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