Good Boy: K-9 Bloodhound Fred Leads Rescuers to Missing 6-Year-Old Girl in Tennessee
Courtesy of Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office
Get this dog all the chicken and pizza crusts he desires.
That would be Fred, a bloodhound and K-9 officer with the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office in Tennessee. He deserves all those goodies and plenty of pets and love after he helped find a missing 6-year-old girl whose father is accused of keeping her in an unventilated, hot outbuilding.
Kinzleigh Reeder went missing in DeKalb County in late May, WSMV reports. Her father was suspected, and authorities thought he had taken her to a community called Pea Ridge. That's where Fred's heroics come into play.
According to WSMV, deputies on Friday gave Fred an item belonging to the father. The bloodhound sniffed it and his handler released him to go search. He traced the scent and eventually sat down next to an outbuilding.
Officers opened the reinforced door and found miserable conditions inside, WSMV reports. There was no air conditioning or ventilation, and metal covered the windows, Sheriff Patrick Ray told the TV station in a statement. Kinzleigh and her father had been going to the bathroom in a bucket, and they were found hiding behind blankets.
The father was arrested and charged, but Kinzleigh wanted to meet the dog who'd helped rescue her.
"He gave her licks. She gave him a big old hug," Deputy Richard Tidwell, Fred's partner, told WSMV. "His reward for a successful find is his chicken. He loves chicken. If you say chicken he's going to perk right up."
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Delicious chicken wasn't all. Fred also earned a smattering of pizza crusts for his find.
"He ate the chicken and wanted to meet other people as if to say, 'Look what I've done,'" Tidwell told WSMV.
Fred's certainly earned that praise in our book. Good boy!
