Meet Winston Purcell. A little rough around the edges but an alright guy. His job is finding death. He's a cadaver dog handler. He's quiet, serious, a bit closed off. The aftermath of tragedy is a serious business. Of course he's haunted, what leading hero isn't? Everyone has something in their past that they need to accept and overcome. Win's no different. He used to be in Search and Rescue. He turned to cadaver dogs when he could no longer accept that sometimes rescue comes too late. The dead are already dead.
He and Vera worked Ground Zero until they were trapped for several hours in a collapse. Winston was banged up pretty badly. He bears a few scars, both physically and emotionally, from that event. After that they worked Fresh Kills for a few months. In 2005 Hurricane Katrina hammered New Orleans and Winston was called to assist in the recovery of victims from that terrible disaster.
He lives with his dog, Chuck, outside the small town of Ulysses, south of Richmond, VA.
Have a very merry Christmas
4 years ago
1 comments:
I understand that this kind of work is also very hard on the dogs. An acquaintance told me she used to work as a volunteer and her job was just to play with the dogs and give them lots of love and attention after the dogs were done searching for the day
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