SEARCH DOG'S RAVEN tells the Eerie Story of a Wilderness Search Dog Team.Search Backup Liaison 'JESSE' Page 1
Like many children these days, Jesse grew up in a single-parent home. His father left shortly after Jesse's birth and hasn't been heard from since. Trying to make ends meet, Jesse's mother did all she could to hold jobs, but often ended up losing them because of her need to care for Jesse and her efforts as a volunteer search dog handler.
For the first thirteen years of his life, Jesse did a lot of moving around. He and his mother changed cities several times and when they did stay, it often meant changes to their living arrangements. Renting with a growing son, and a large dog, can be difficult. He switched schools several times and therefore had few friends. And although he sometimes felt lonely, he made friends with books, learning and the family dog.
Even though Jesse experienced a lot of instability early in his life, the one thing that he could always rely on was his mother's love. She cultivated a sense of resilience in Jesse that would help him throughout his life. He saw her fighting against the adversity she was continuously facing and he learned from her what perseverance and determination could do. The other constant in his life was the hundreds of hours spent at search and rescue base camps, while his mother and their dog searched for missing people.
One icy winter night near Calgary, Jesse and his mother were driving back from a search, hit black ice and had a terrible accident. His mother died on impact. Jesse survived, but with mental scars and a spinal cord injury. Having no other family and no family friends willing to take on the responsibility of caring for a quadriplegic, Jesse was forced to live in a group home at the age of thirteen. His dog also had to be given away. He not only had to adjust to life with a spinal cord injury, but had to face the fact that his major source of support -his mother - was no longer alive.
