Buddy the Hero Dog reunion!

A few months ago I produced pieces for NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and The Today Show about the amazing expoloits of Buddy, the German Shepherd who led Trooper Terrence Shanigan to a fire when Terrence was lost on miles of unincorporated road outside of Willow and had a broken GPS. The fire started in a work shed right next to the house, and the house most likely would have burnt down if Buddy hadn't gotten help there so quickly.

This week I produced a piece on the incident for Dateline NBC, which was of course a lot of fun for me! We spent time with Trooper Shanigan and Ben Heinrich, who is Buddy's owner and the person who acidentally started the fire. He was injured with burns to his hand and face, and told Buddy, "We need to get help," which Buddy did! Buddy led Trooper Shanigan to the fire, then went back to the main road and led a fire truck in. And Buddy is a very shy dog. When his job was over, he hid in the forest until Ben got home from the hospital. His work was done.

Here are some pics from the shoot. The last pic is Trooper Shanigan with the sled dogs he's training for his Troopers on the Trail program, which will be the only State Trooper sled dog team in existence! They will patrol Native villages that are off the road system, of which in AK there are many. Buddy really couldn't have picked a better person to find to help his family!