Maine Game Warden and His Dog Find 2 Missing People in 3 Days: 'We Are a Team'
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
A game warden in Maine and his dog Koda are proud to have had a very good week after locating two missing people in only three days.
Warden Jake Voter and Koda rescued an 11-year-old from St. Albans on Friday, just hours after she was reported missing by tracking her scent.
"I never would have been there without the dog," Voter told News Center Maine of the area he and Koda found the little girl.
The duo then came to the rescue of a 77-year-old woman in Bremen on Monday morning, who has been missing since at least Saturday, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
The woman was dehydrated but alert after falling and spending two nights in the woods behind her home, according to the department.
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"What happened last week probably will never happen again in my career, just the fact that we had the opportunity to search for two people in three days and they were in the area I was searching, that in it of itself is uncommon," Voter told News Center
Voter and Koda are only in their second year working together.
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"We try not to get too attached but it's hard not to ... we are a team, he's the most important part, sometimes I feel like I'm on the dumb end of the team," Voter said. "You have to trust your dog."
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Game warden officers recently started conducting more K9 searches as the missing persons cases in the area increased since the start of the pandemic.
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"When the dog does their part and the handler does their part, it's an indescribable feeling of self-worth and value," K9 specialist and game warden Lucas Bellanceau told the outlet.
