State Police K-9 Zeus Finds Missing North Providence Senior

NORTH PROVIDENCE, RI—Things did not look good for a 76-year-old North Providence man missing for more than 24 hours. Richard Cote had left his home around 5 a.m. Sunday and disappeared. His family called police. North Providence officers understood the danger for Mr. Cote, who suffers from dementia. Within hours, they broadcast a silver alert and asked the public's help. The state police retweeted Cote's picture and a description. The television stations and news blogs picked up the story.

But no one had seen him.

And the weather was deteriorating. It had rained Sunday night. The temperatures dropped close to freezing. A hard rain was on the way early Monday morning. State police and North Providence police decided to send in a search and rescue team.

They sent an A-team, and it didn't take Trooper Charles Bergeron and his partner Zeus, the black lab mix, long to solve the case.

After 25 minutes in the woods about a quarter mile from home, they found Mr. Cote — alive.

"It's the best feeling," Trooper Bergeron said. He's gone on lots of searches. This one had a good ending.

Mr. Cote, to be sure, needed to be treated for hypothermia. He was found face down lying in brush. And he was soaking wet. The rain had poured down and soaked his robe all the way through. He wasn't able to get up.

He was probably thinking this was the end, Trooper Bergeron said.

Until medics arrived to take Mr. Cote to Fatima Hospital, the trooper and Zeus sat alongside Mr. Cote. Trooper Bergeron reassured him that help was on the way.

The rescue moments are something the K-9 officers train for, he said. The officers want to heap praise on the dog for finding the missing man, but they're also there to comfort a person who's just been through an ordeal.

Zeus, his 8-year-old partner, fortunately has a great personality for search and rescue.

"He's full of love," the trooper said. Plus, he has the work ethic for search and rescue.

Zeus came from the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shelter in East Providence. He was there with Ruby, who became another state police dog. She was going to be euthanized, but the SPCA and state police teamed up on a project to give these shelter dogs another chance. Ruby is now a semi-finalist for the American Humane's Hero Dog award in the Search and Rescue category.

She's not the first Rhode Island dog to go up for a Hero Dog prize. K-9 Abby of Jamestown, LuAnn Botelho's dog, also was nominated several times for her volunteer work with the Jamestown police. In addition to search and rescue for people, Abby also found many lost pets. She died in 2017 of cancer.

Ruby found a Glocester teen lost 36 hours in the woods. He almost died, but survived thanks to her. Ironically, that teen's mother had volunteered at the RI SPCA shelter and had worked with Ruby. The same day Ruby left the shelter with Trooper Dan O'Neil, Zeus left the shelter with Trooper Bergeron.

Zeus didn't have all the problems Ruby had to overcome, the trooper said.

"He was only given back to the SPCA one time," he said, and the reason was just that the person couldn't care for him. Zeus was a year old then.

"I had to teach him obedience," the trooper said. Zeus didn't come with any skill set.

"All he did was lick me," Trooper Bergeron said. But he liked his personality. He had wanted a dog that could work off leash and be easy-going with people. In some cases, the rescued person may be a good quarter mile away from the trooper, and Trooper Bergeron needs to know Zeus will sit with the person (and bark) until he gets there and not scare the person.

"He has to warm up to them," he said, and Zeus does that well.

The elaborate search and rescue training followed, and it took time. It was several months to do the basic training, and then they continued on cadaver searches (for dead bodies), wilderness searches, water rescues, and more.

Trooper Bergeron likes dogs, and before he took the assignment, he worked with a K-9 officer to see what the job would require. There's a lot to it, he said. The dog is also a family member, so he's with the trooper all the time.

"He has his tough days, too," the trooper said. After a long search, Zeus might need to sleep the whole night. But Zeus is kind of a natural at family life, too.

"He just wanted to be loved," he said. "He just blends in with the family and the other pets." Some people may want to write off "pound dogs" like Zeus and Ruby, but they're pretty special dogs.

"I didn't get to pick a dog," he said. Trooper Matthew T. Zarrella, now retired, started the state police canine unit, and he came up with the plan to train the SPCA dogs. Zurrella's idea was to "give them a shot," see if the police could train the dogs out of bad habits and harness all the good energy. Zeus didn't have too many bad habits, he said.

"He could be a little stubborn here and there," he said. But they bonded. Zeus has his back, he said. On this search Monday, Trooper Bergeron focused on the woods near Cote's home. Someone else could check the neighbor's yard and look inside the shed and the boat, he said. He and Zeus went into the woods hoping the dog could pick up the scent. They were just looking for any human scent, he said.

"I didn't need an article" (of clothing), he said. He didn't need to track Cote. He just needed to find him, a job that calls for analyzing how the terrain and the wind are going to interfere or help with the search and then guiding the dog to go high or low.

"Everything fell into place," he said. They were in North Providence for about 45 minutes, including the 20 minutes spent with the local police and the family, before they found Mr. Cote.

"We rescued Zeus, and now he's rescuing other people," he said.

Photo Credit: Laura Meade Kirk, Rhode Island State Police