I Am Skye, Finder of the Lost

Chapter 1

Ready to Run

Ready to go, Skye? my favorite human, Susan, says in a high-pitched, cheerful voice. She knows my answer is always the same.

You’re doggone right I am!

She opens the covered back of her truck, and I bound happily into my doggy car bed.

Soon we’re motoring along, and I’m looking out the back window. There’s so much to see! I watch as the morning sun paints the bushes, trees, and hills of the Mojave Desert with yellow light.

At a big brown sign, we take a turn.

Hey, I recognize this road, I think. My nose twitches with excitement.

Before long, our truck pulls up next to a small building. A person wearing a ranger hat and badge waves us through. We’re regulars here, Susan and me. We visit this desert park almost every week.

I know the desert trees that grow here, with their crooked limbs and sticky-out leaves. I know about the desert tortoises and the rattlesnakes that hide among the rocks. I know the smells of all the growing things, and the sand and the stone.

And I know what we’ll be doing here today.

Our truck stops outside an old ranger station, and I see that our teammates have already arrived. The humans—Christopher, Marisol, and RJ—are all wearing matching sweatshirts, just like Susan’s. We dogs have matching vests. There’s a bloodhound named Bear, a standard poodle named Birdie, and Pilot, a golden retriever. And me? I’m a border collie and the newest member of the group.

We’re all part of the park’s volunteer canine search and rescue team. We’re here to train so that we’ll know how to help find people who are lost or hurt in the California desert. Bear, Birdie, and Pilot are already certified search and rescue dogs. They each passed a test and got a certificate. I’m not there yet. But I’m learning!

While the humans discuss plans for this morning’s training session, we dogs greet each other with friendly sniffs.

Can we start Skye off with a puppy runaway? Susan asks. She’s already raring to go.

I get to go first today? Sweet! I think.

I’m excited now, but the first time I heard about puppy runaway, I thought there was a problem—like maybe a dog had run off and gotten lost. It wasn’t that at all. It’s really a fun game of hide-and-seek!

To start today’s game, Susan gently holds my collar while Christopher, Bear’s human partner, trots down the road. I watch Christopher go around a bend in the road and duck behind some desert plants.

Christopher, you’re not very good at hiding, I think. I saw