THUNDER with his handler, Vynn Stuart.

A four-legged visitor to the Nashville Rotary Club meeting, last week, is a specialist at locating dead bodies, many times under many feet of water.

The visitor was ‘Thunder,’ a German Shepherd who was in the company with Vynn Stuart of the Little River County Sheriff’s Department, and Nikki Cherry, president of the Howard County Search and Rescue.

Thunder is one of three dogs in Stuart’s supervision — the others specialize in finding cadavers and tracking live humans. The dogs also literally live in Stewart’s home.

The women put on a program about search and rescue.

Cherry said that the local SAR had 30 members and was organized in 1974. “We don’t get called out too often,” she said, but they often assist other units across Arkansas in searches and disasters.

Stuart said she had been handling dogs for 20 years, and that she and the dogs have intensive and frequent training in order to be certified. She said that Thunder had even located some drowning victims who were too deep to be recovered. He is also an honorary Oklahoma State Trooper.

Stuart is also a member of the Howard County SAR. She said that the unit and dogs had to be called out by a sheriff or deputy.

Club president Jonathan Canaday told the members that the annual Rotary Club Scrapper Football banquet would be Jan. 26.