This week, I got to edit one of my favorite stories ever: Reporter Ari Daniel’s piece on COVID-detection dogs.
I loved it for two reasons. One, I’m a huge dog fan. I’ve got a 6-year-old Shiba Inu named Sheeboo and I’m obsessed with her. And two – it made me realize even more how awesome and smart dogs are. We truly don’t deserve them!
In Ari’s story, readers follow Huntah the dog, a not-quite-two-year-old black lab, as she sweeps classrooms at Freetown Elementary School in Freetown, Mass., in search of COVID.
If she detects COVID on a surface, such as a desk or a bookbag, she’ll sit. And her handler will alert the school administrator to evacuate students from the infected area and spray it down with decontaminant before allowing students to return.
After Huntah does her job, she gets lots of pets and lovin’ from the students.
I pinged Ari on Slack and asked him what it was like getting to meet Huntah. "Huntah was as excited to meet me as I was her — and I loved seeing how quickly she sniffed a room out for COVID. With all the rough (or should I say ruff) stories out there, it was a joy to report this uplifting piece," he wrote.
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