Lake County —After more than a day of intense searching, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, which serves the Grand Rapids area, has located one of its most important members, a K9 named Soka.
Soka went missing in Northern Michigan over the weekend.
He’s one of their newer K9s, trained to sniff out narcotics.
Captain Ben Cammenga said it couldn’t have been a better outcome, finding Soka so soon after he got away from his K9 handler Sunday morning.
“We have some great news. We had a citizen call in that they saw a dog, which might be Soka. And when we went over there, sure enough, it was so, this is a huge relief for everybody involved that he was located. Overall, his condition appears to be good.
Soka, a German Shorthair Pointer mix, took off while on a walk in the Manistee National Forest and was located earlier Monday afternoon, about a mile south of the last known sighting
“It was on North Hamilton Road in the area of 3 Mile Road,” said Cammenga.
He has been reunited with his handler.
“He’s very relieved. Like I said, he’s in good condition. Other than that, he got himself into it with a porcupine. So, going to have the vet check him out. There’s some porcupine quills that will have to be removed,” said Cammenga.
He said Lake and Manistee County Sheriff’s offices helped, along with other agencies, but it took everyone coming together to find Soka.
“We had a lot of resources out here. We had drone teams. We had our mounted unit out here. MSP assisted with a helicopter out here. But in the end, it was the community, a citizen who called it in and had located the dog,” said Cammenga.
The Kent County Undersheriff Bryan Muir said there were challenges along the way
“There’s a lot of area to cover, you know, with a dark colored dog running through the woods. It’s nearly impossible to navigate on foot, which is why we’re using our mounted unit, the ATVs, trying to go up and down the two tracks in the past that already exist, and then using that aerial coverage with the drones and the helicopter for areas that we just can’t get through,” said Muir.
There were also safety concerns, with it being hunting season and hunters in the woods.
“Not only for Soka, but it’s a concern for our officers out there as well, too. So, we’re trying to make sure our officers are clearly marked,” said Muir.
Cammenga said he’s glad it ended; they planned to keep looking until he was located, leaving no officer behind.
“We’re extremely happy that he was found this soon. We are already starting to plan for tomorrow and the next day in the coming days and what we’re going to do,” said Cammenga.
The Kent County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by both Lake and Manistee County Sheriff’s Office and the Michigan State Police. Helicopters, drones, mounted horses, and people on ATVs all took part in the search.