Molly, the problem-solving cocker spaniel, is an experienced Cat Detector.
Yes, I wondered what that was too.
You know what it’s like when you hurt yourself, or become ill, you go to ground. The mystery illness which laid me low in April of this year had me living in a near-comatose state on top of a high bookshelf in the woman’s bedroom, which for a cat who lives indoors was the best place to hide out. Other cats who go outside hide somewhere out there and if they’re not found quickly, like within a fortnight, they often don’t survive after being rescued.
Enter Molly, the world’s first trained cat detection dog. Her job is to rescue missing moggies.
Her training took nine months with experts in canine behavious at Medical Detection Dogs. This had never been done before. She was a quick learner. The first phase was lab training, where she was taught to isolate scents and then working with a behavioural specialist who taught her to understand signals and commands.
On assignments, Molly is trained to pick up cats’ scents from their bedding. When she finds the missing cat, she lies down to signal success, so as not to scare them. She gets rewarded with her super-treat: black pudding.
Isn’t this a better job than drug-detection at airports?