Michelle and her Yogi on flightGolden Yogi
One of the teams in this organization is made up of Michelle Keating and her Yogi. Yogi is five years old, and has been a search dog since he was about two years of age. Besides the Hurricane Mitch disaster in 1998, Michelle and Yogi have worked together on many cases looking for missing people and pets. Last summer he helped locate a drowning victim. After the search Yogi went straight to the victim's mother to comfort her. This gentle boy realizes that comforting victims' families is as much a part of his job as finding their loved ones.

Michelle and Yogi's mission to Honduras was memorable because of how happy Yogi made people everywhere we went, especially the street kids and orphans they met. Body recovery was sad work for him, but he seemed to realize how important the work was to help provide closure for families who had lost so much.

Yogi with some orphans in TegucigalpaFor the past year Yogi has been visiting residents at a local AIDS hospice called Our House. Every week he and Michelle spend time with people who are always very happy to see him. And, if someone is too weak to get up, Yogi simply hops up on the bed to give lots of sorely needed cuddles.

Like most Golden Retrievers, Yogi has a very big heart. As Michelle's best friend, he has taught her many things about performing service joyfully and with compassion. Now is this one special boy or what? Boy, I'd surely love to shake his paw!!

The following Thanksgiving 2004 letter was just received from Michelle about Yogi's latest exploits: "We have been recently written about being inYogi at 8! best-selling writer Chuck Palahniuk's book, Stranger than Fiction (pages 160 to 170). Someone read the book who works for a production company that does stories for the Weather Channel — Storm Stories — and thought it would be a good story for them to film. Last week the crew came out and interviewed us and shot reenactment footage of our trip to Hondura (fall 1998).

Of course, Yogi was amazing. He is a Leo and loves being on camera. Whatever the producer asked him to do, he did very professionally. What a ham! As you can see, at 8 years old Yogi is aging gracefully." The Weather Channel aired Yogi's episode of the new Animal Storm Stories on March 20, 2005.

YEA! Yogi's latest honor [August 2005] involved his receiving an Honorable Mention in the AKC 2005 Awards for Canine Excellence, Search & Rescue Dog category. That means he will receive a bronze collar medallion engraved with his name. Check it out by clicking here.


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