TEXAS — For years now, when disaster strikes, there has been a statewide volunteer group on the front-lines when backup is needed. They bring a special partner with them.
Two of those team members are Samantha and Leila.
“Samantha’s 5,” said George Ramirez fondly.
They’re Belgian Malinois, and they’re almost like your average house dog. Samantha and Leila love to play fetch and chase after squirrels, but when Ramirez says “heel,” they’re immediately all ears.
“It’s important to have control over them because of all the distractions,” said Ramirez.
Ramirez is their owner and handler. Every day, regardless of the weather, he takes them out to train.
“This is what we call environmental,” said Ramirez.
Spectrum News caught up with him at a Fort Worth park in the hottest part of the day.
“Their favorite treat is my favorite treat,” said Ramirez, holding out a Nulo treat as he asked Samantha to bark. Nulo partners with Texas Search and Rescue, or TEXSAR.
“To have them as a personal pet is awesome, but to be able to work, to be able to make such a difference, it’s really a good feeling,” said Ramirez.
George Ramirez is among roughly 800 human volunteers.
“To be surrounded with this kind of people that’s just out of the goodness of their heart. and they just want to serve the community, that’s what TEXSAR is made of,” said Ramirez.
There are about 30 dogs on the team too, like Samantha, that train to find living people.
“She’ll bark. She’ll say, ‘I found,’ and I’ll say, ‘Show me,’ and she’ll take me right back to you,” said Ramirez.
They’ve had been deployed to some of the state’s worst natural disasters.
“We went to Kerrville, and TEXSAR was absolutely amazing,” said Ramirez.
They’re also called to find missing people, like older adults who get lost.
All the training and travel is paid for by the volunteer. It’s a price worth every penny in Ramirez’s eyes.
“Because of the fact that I came from a public service career, I was used to giving and rescuing and helping and working for the people, so once I retired, I wasn’t ready to give that up,” said Ramirez.
He comes from a long career in law enforcement.
“It just comes from my heart. It’s what I’m about,” said Ramirez.
While Spectrum News interviewed Ramirez, we let Samantha get a little practice in searching for our reporter, Lauren Rangel.
While Samantha got suited up in her search and rescue gear, Lauren hid behind a large tree in the park.
Exactly one minute and thirteen seconds later, Samantha came running up to her and then went to report to Ramirez that she had found Rangel by barking.
Then, it was right back to being a normal dog by playing a game of tug a war with her dad.