Homosassa, Fla.
A DEPUTY'S DISCOVERY: In September 2001 24-year-old Lake County Sheriff's Deputy Kody Snodgrass followed his bloodhound Jimmy to some local woods, where he found a missing 13-year-old boy who had slit his wrists. Emotional after having saved a life, Kody called his dad, Duke, 64, and said, "I want to train more dogs to do this."
A LIFE CUT SHORT: Two weeks later Kody died after a motorcycle crash. "He was everything to me," says Angie, 53, of her only child. (Duke has two grown children from a previous marriage.) Remembering his son's wish, Duke—a retired construction-business owner who had learned to train dogs years earlier—started working with Ranger, a hound Kody had adopted. The couple donated the dog to the Lake County Sheriff's Office, where Ranger helped find another child and apprehend two armed-robbery suspects.
CANNY K-9S: Today, through their nonprofit 832 K-9's Deputy Dogs (www.deputydogs.org; named after Kody's badge number), the couple and their cadre of 50 volunteers have bred and donated some 80 hounds that now work for police around the country. "These dogs have made a huge impact," says Scott Gaines of the Delaware County, Ohio, Sheriff's Office, where a hound helped find four missing kids. Says Duke: "Kody has helped save more lives than we'll ever know."
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Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
