Scent of the Missing

In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, Susannah Charleson clipped the powerful news photo of an exhausted handler and his search-and-rescue dog. A dog-lover and pilot with search experience herself, Charleson was so impressed by the extraordinarily important work these dogs did that she decided to volunteer. Once Susannah qualified to train a dog of her own, she got Puzzle, a strong, bright Golden Retriever. From the start Puzzle exhibited a unique aptitude for search-and-rescue work, but the puppy’s willfulness challenged even Susannah, who had raised dogs for years. Scent of the Missing is the story of Susannah and Puzzle’s adventures and the complex relationship they forge as they help in the pursuit and recovery of people who have fallen prey to crime, misadventure, or catastrophe—a teen gone missing, an Alzheimer’s patient wandering in the cold, the debris of the space shuttle Columbia disaster. From the earliest air-scent lessons to her final mastery of wholebody dialog, Puzzle emerges as a fully collaborative partner. Along the way Susannah and Puzzle learn to read the clues in the field, and in each other, to accomplish together the critical work neither could do alone.