FORT COLLINS, Colo.—A world-renowned hero paid a visit to CSU’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital on May 20.
Looking at the exuberant 11-year-old border collie, no one would suspect she was in for her six-month checkup after having surgery last November for cancer.
Sage and her owner, Diane Whetsel, have worked together since Sage was 10 months old, training to become one of the nation’s top search-and-rescue dogs. Sage was first deployed during the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, tasked with recovering the body of the terrorists who attacked the Pentagon. She was successful and since has worked on the Natalie Holloway case in Aruba, helped track down missing soldiers in Iraq and worked on several missing person and homicide cases with police departments across the nation.
As a result of her Sept. 11 work, Sage was enrolled in a canine health study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, to determine the risk and effects of search and rescue on dogs that work in environments such as Ground Zero.
Each year, Whetsel routinely sends a blood sample and chest X-rays to the University of Pennsylvania. The tests went without alarm until last fall when Whetsel was contacted by her veterinarian.
“There was something in her lungs, a mass of some sort,” Whetsel said. “They said it could be one of two, and their guess was either a thymoma or a lymphoma.”
Had it not been for the study, Whetsel said the masses might never have been found.
“She was never symptomatic,” Whetsel said. “Had it not been for the 9/11 study they were doing at the University of Pennsylvania, we may not have detected it until she was symptomatic and the prognosis may have been different.”
After speaking to multiple doctors about Sage’s condition, Whetsel decided to bring the canine hero to Colorado State University for treatment from their home in Roswell, N.M.
“Colorado State was the gold standard,” Whetsel said. “Everybody said where she needs to go is Colorado State. This is apparently the best, and all the doctors agreed to it.”
Sage underwent surgery in November to remove the masses from her chest and returned to CSU recently for a six-month checkup with Janet Lori, a veterinarian at the hospital. Lori and her team performed a CT scan May 19 to check for additional masses.
While Lori said there is a small spot on the scan, she said the team was not certain whether it was an indication of another mass or simply reactive tissue from Sage’s surgery in November.
“At this point, we’re going to keep an eye on Sage and how she’s doing,” Lori said. “As far as what her long-term prognosis is, we are guardedly optimistic that her prognosis is good.”
Sage has always been a light to those around her, particularly the soldiers she worked with in Iraq.
“We’d go eight or 10 miles a day and come back to the camp; and as soon as she’d take some water and lay down for five minutes, she’d have a Frisbee in her mouth,” Whetsel said. “She would always bring a smile to the soldiers’ faces.”
Sage stands out as the atypical employee: She truly loves her job. Whetsel attributes her excitement to the motivational style of training most rescue dogs enter.
“A dog that is trained motivationally likes the job. They want to do it,” Whetsel said. “The reward for her is actually the job itself, not that she’s going to get to the end of it. She loves the job.”
Alongside the discomfort of Sage’s profession lies danger. Search-and-rescue dogs are routinely exposed to hazardous environments and materials, paving the way for multiple health problems. However, Whetsel said, despite their hero status, many dogs often never receive the care they need or deserve.
“These dogs have no support once they’re done working. In her case (Sage’s), she belongs to me, so it’s up to me to take care of her,” Whetsel said. “If the dog is injured in the military, local police or state police, the business office decides what they’re going to do for these dogs. Lots of times, if there is an expensive treatment needed, they just retire them and that leaves their fate uncertain.”
Because of this dilemma, Whetsel started the Sage Foundation for Dogs to help provide funding for injured or ill K-9 dogs.
“I want to make sure that all of our hero dogs in this country are taken care of the best they can and that they get the treatment they need,” Whetsel said. “And that their treatment’s not decided by some business office.”
