Last week, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake left Taiwan’s Hualien County shaken, literally and figuratively. At least 13 people died in the quake, which also injured more than 1,000 people. A labrador retriever named Roger is providing some positive energy amid the disaster.
Roger failed to become a police drug-sniffing dog because the now-eight-year-old pup is “overly friendly and playful”. But, don’t worry, he seems to have found his purpose in life. According to CNN, he’s been helping first responders rescue quake survivors and find victims’ bodies to return to their grieving families.
The same attributes that made Roger a poor fit as a narcotic-sniffing dog made him a good fit as a rescue dog, said Chen Chih-san, captain of the rescue dog unit of the Kaohsiung Fire Department, in an interview with CNN.
Chih-san said Roger transferred to rescue training school when he was a one-year-old puppy, after being born into a training center for drug-sniffing dogs. He’s been doing good work ever since he made the switch, and the same exuberance that got him kicked out of drug-sniffing school has made him a beloved rescue dog in Taiwan.
Though Roger is just one of several dogs taking part in the quake recovery effort, this rescue labrador’s story of success after initial failure is particularly inspiring and endearing.
Roger shows us that you don’t have to follow a prescribed path in life. If you’re too friendly to be a drug-sniffing dog, be a rescue dog instead.