He was just another stray, shivering in the cold temperatures of early February when he was found by a Good Samaritan on SR 28 near Greenfield, skinny from lack of food and missing spots of fur in his coat.
The Belgian Tervuren was later given the name Kyro, which according to Google means “Victorious One,” and he was destined for greatness when he was brought to the Highland County Humane Society Animal Shelter.
After a short stay in Highland County, Kyro made his mark as a human remains detection dog and by being a part of a cadaver search and rescue team in the state of Missouri.
But first, according to Megan Wolf, the shelter manager for the Humane Society, he had to be nursed back to health.
The first thing he was checked for was the presence of a micro-chip, which she said he didn’t have, but it didn’t take long for the shelter animal caretakers to discover that someone had been working with Kyro.
“We try to go through the ropes with our animals when they first come in because it’s a good bonding experience,” Wolf said. “We discovered he knew how to sit on command, knew how to shake hands and lay down, he knew a lot of things like ‘place,’ he loved ‘place.’”
Wolf then thought she would see if the dog “spoke” German and discovered he knew several German spoken commands for “down,” “place” and “drop it.”
She said that dogs end up strays for multiple reasons, which is the reason the Humane Society exists as a central location so that owners can check there first to see if their dog had been dropped off.
“We hold them for three days, which is the typical policy across the nation for shelters,” Christi Hauke, board president for the Humane Society, said. “And after Megan noticed the unique abilities of this dog, and since Tervurens are dogs that are used in police work, we knew he had to be placed with either a special family or some sort of search and rescue work with law enforcement.”
After the three-day stray hold had expired, she said Kyro was off to the vet for shots, treatment of hot spots in his fur and neutering.
“A lady came in that was friends with the folks in Missouri that ran the search and rescue program,” Wolfe said. “She came in to look at this dog for them, because she knew he was a special dog and needed a very special home.”
She said the two people who ran the rescue program came in later and adopted Kyro, then took him with them to Missouri for additional training as a cadaver search and rescue dog.
“Hopefully, they’re planning on returning with Kyro back to Hillsboro in about a year and we can see how he’s been doing, and see some pictures of him on the job,” she said.
Reach Tim Colliver at 937-402-2571.
