Abby

Pet Letters to God - This was written by Mark Bricklin, the editor of a pet magazine that folded last year.  Please credit him if you pass this along.

Dear God,
When my family eats dinner they always bless their food.
But they never bless mine.  So, I've been wagging my tail extra fast when they pour fill my bowl.  Have you noticed my own blessing?

Dear God,
How come people love to smell flowers, but seldom, if ever, smell one another?
Where are their priorities?

Dear God,
When we get to Heaven, can we sit on your couch?  Or is it the same old story?

Dear God,
Excuse me, but why are there cars named after the jaguar, the cougar, the mustang, the colt, the stingray, & the rabbit, but not one named for a dog?  How often do you see a cougar riding around?  We dogs love a nice ride!  I know every breed cannot have its own model, but it would be easy to rename the Chrysler Eagle the Chrysler Beagle!

Dear God,
If a dog barks his head off in the forest & no human hears him, is he still a bad dog?

Dear God,
If we come back as humans, is that good or bad?

Dear God,
When we get to the Pearly Gates, do we have to shake hands to get in?

Dear God,
We dogs can understand human verbal instructions, hand signals, whistles, horns, clickers, beepers, scent IDs, electromagnetic energy fields, and frisbee flight paths.
What do humans understand?

Dear God,
Are there dogs on other planets, or are we alone?  I have been howling at the moon and stars for a long time, but all I ever hear back is the beagle across the street!

Dear God,
Are there mailmen in Heaven?  If there are, will I have to apologize?
 

Dear God,
I've always lived at the shelter and I have everything I need.  But many of the cats here have names and I don't.  Could you give me a name please?  It would be good for my self-esteem.

Dear God,
The new terrier I live with just peed on the Oriental rug and I have a feeling my family might blame me 'cuz they think I'm jealous of this stupid dog.  Since they have no sense of smell, how can I convince them I'm innocent?  Does Petsmart sell lie detectors?

From Pets' letters to God, Mark Bricklin translator .

Rottweilers top dog for State Police in Newburgh

By Heather Yakin

Newburgh-This is Rottweiler land.

While the four-legged half of most State Police K9 teams are German shepherd dogs, at Newburgh barracks they seem to prefer the bulky black-and-gold Rottweilers.  Or maybe it just seems that way, since the new bomb-detecting dog is Rottweiler, and so is the station commander's retired partner.

"I wanted a Rottie," said Trooper Perry Sarles, who handles the new dog, Snyder.  "I had a Rottie at home already."

Sarles, a 15-year veteran with the State Police, started training with his new partner up in Comstock last September.   They've been on active duty 0ut of the Newburgh barracks for just a few weeks, but Snyder already hauled in his first big cache of explosives.

The morning of March 12, Sarles, now an assistant explosives technician, got the call to Monroe.  State Police there had gotten a tip[ that a man was selling illegal fireworks, and they had an idea of where the contraband was stored.  Before police could get a search warrant, though, they had to know which storage unit the stuff was in.  That's where Snyder's services were needed..

"I started with one row, and just had him (Snyder) sniff the doors," Sarles said,  "The one he has a "hit" on, we get a search warrant for."

Snyder's "hit" landed troopers and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms a payload of M-80s, rockets, firecrackers and sparklers valued at roughly $50,000.  It was from 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of class B and C explosives.

After going to Monroe for the search at 10 a.m., Sarles and Snyder still had to cover their regular shift until 11 p.m. that night.

"He worked hard yesterday," Sarles said. 

The precursor to the hard work was the training academy.  There, Sarles learned about explosives and about his partner.   Snyder was trained to sniff out explosives based on his "play drive," and to sit when he finds them.

"His reward for finding an explosive is a tennis ball," Sarles explained.  "If he sits and there's no explosives, he doesn't get the tennis ball."

Sgt. Robert Kreppein and his Rottweiler partner, Stan, were on active duty in Monroe and Middletown from 1990 to 1995   In that time, Kreppein and Stan became known as one of the more productive K9 teams in the state.

"I like their temperament," Kreppein said,  "I think they're more even-tempered." In 1991, Stan found an electronic

In 1993, Stan tracked and caught Donald "Red" Fitzgerald, who in the space of a week was charged with attacking a woman and biting a small dog, and then with shooting a 15-year-old boy in the back.   Fitzgerald hid from police, but Stan led Kreppein and other troopers to a nearby barn, where Fitzgerald was reportedly sitting on an all-terrain vehicle, hollering to be left along.  He ignored three commands to get down on the ground, and then seemed to reach for something.  Stan is trained to take down anyone who appears to reach for a weapon, and he did his job.  Fitzgerald, charged with attempted second-degree murder, eventually pleaded guilty to first-degree assault.

Stan was retired in 1995, after Kreppein was promoted to sergeant.  The State Police have a policy that commanding officers cannot remain an active part of a K9 team.  Still, Stan makes frequent visits to the barracks, where he's a big favorite among the troopers.

"He and I had a great, great career together," Kreppein said.  "I still miss going out and riding together with him on the road."

All State Police canines are named for troopers who died in the line of duty.  Stan is named after Trooper Stanley C. Green, who died in 1935 in a motorcycle accident near Albany.  Snyder's name comes from closer to home,.  He's named after Investigator Richard Snyder, who worked out of the Ellenville barracks.  He was shot and killed in 1984 while interviewing a witness in Bloomingburg. 

The dogs are also each issued a State Police shield number.  Stan was shield number 65; he still wears the small gold-colored badge on his collar.  Snyder, fresh out of the academy, is still waiting to get his from Al any.

More people know about narcotics dogs,   but demand for bomb dogs in on the rise.

"The bomb dogs are the up and coming thing now with terrorist threats," Sarles said.

It isn't just the murky threat of faceless terrorists that make bomb-sniffing dogs necessary, Kreppein said.   "There's been kids with pipe bombs.  They can download all this stuff from the Internet," he said.

Over the past few months, there have been bombs found near the Marlboro High School.  A disgruntled employee called in a bomb threat at the Highland retirement home.  Sarles and Snyder handled a pipe bomb in Blooming Grove ---.  With just over a dozen bomb dogs in the  police K9 program, Sarles and Snyder expect to be busy.  Andy they'll still be working their regular detail.  Sarles is happy with the new duties, and the new high-energy partner.

"He likes to play," Sarles said.  "When we are in the house, he'll woof at me and whimper at me when he wants to go out and run play"