At six years old, Roma still has the same quality that once made ordinary life difficult for the person who first owned her.
Energy.
A lot of it.
She wants to move.
Search.
Run.
Play.
Work.
The black Labrador Retriever was never a dog who seemed naturally inclined to spend an entire afternoon quietly watching the world from a couch.
Years ago, that intensity helped send her into rescue.
Today, it sends her across piles of broken concrete beside a Los Angeles County firefighter, searching for people who may be trapped beneath collapsed buildings.
On September 24, 2026, Roma and her handler, firefighter Derek Moree, received the Pet Hero Award at Helen Woodward Animal Center’s annual Remember Me Thursday ceremony. The Los Angeles County Fire Department said the pair were recognized specifically for their recent search-and-rescue work in Venezuela.
It was another remarkable turn in a life that might have looked very different if the wrong people had decided Roma simply needed to become a calmer dog.
Instead, somebody looked at all that restless energy and asked a better question.
What if this dog needed a job?
Roma Was Never Short on Enthusiasm
Roma was born on August 12, 2020.
According to the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, or SDF, her original owner eventually realized that the young Labrador’s exuberant energy was more than they could comfortably manage.
Rather than continuing with a situation that wasn’t working, the owner surrendered Roma to Southern California Cat Adoption Tails, a nonprofit rescue that, despite its name, also helps dogs.
That distinction matters.
Roma was not described as a bad dog.
She was not failing at being a Labrador.
She simply brought an extraordinary amount of drive into a life that apparently wasn’t suited to it.
For many pet homes, that kind of dog can be exhausting.
A quick walk around the block may barely take the edge off.
A few minutes of fetch might become twenty, then forty, with the dog still wondering why everyone has stopped.
Without appropriate outlets, a dog with intense working drive can become difficult to live with despite being intelligent, affectionate, and eager to engage.
The very qualities that frustrate one household can become valuable somewhere else.
Roma was about to prove that.
Someone Saw Her on Social Media
The next turning point in Roma’s life happened because the right people saw her differently.
SDF recruiters came across Roma through the rescue organization’s social media.
They noticed the qualities that had made everyday pet life challenging.
High energy.
High drive.
A powerful desire to stay busy.
Instead of treating those qualities as problems to eliminate, they recognized traits that can be useful in disaster search work.
The rescue manager also had experience with working dogs and agreed that Roma might be happier with a job.
So Roma was evaluated for SDF’s program.
The question was no longer whether she could learn to sit still longer.
The question became whether all that intensity could be directed toward finding human scent in rubble.
Search Dogs Need Some of the Traits That Can Make Pet Life Hard
SDF deliberately recruits dogs with unusual drive.
The organization works with shelters and rescue groups to identify Labradors, Golden Retrievers, Border Collies, Belgian Malinois, and mixes that demonstrate the athleticism, focus, energy, and persistence required for urban search and rescue.
SDF itself notes the irony: traits that can make a dog unsuitable for some family homes are often precisely the traits trainers want in a search dog.
A disaster search dog cannot lose interest because a task takes too long.
The dog may need to move confidently across unstable-looking surfaces during training.
Ignore distractions.
Search independently while still responding to a handler.
Follow human scent through environments that look nothing like an ordinary backyard.
And, importantly, remain motivated to search again.
The dog has to believe the work is worth doing.
For Roma, trainers discovered that it was.
At Training, Roma Had No Interest in Becoming Boring
SDF’s description of Roma is affectionate but revealing.
Trainers called her a “little spitfire.”
They described a dog who loved running, hunting, barking, playing tug, and staying busy.
Sitting still for long was apparently not one of her preferred activities.
But once those impulses were directed into search work, Roma progressed quickly.
Her searching became intense, fast, and methodical.
When she located a target during training, she learned to alert and then enjoy the reward that followed.
That is one of the elegant things about working-dog training.
The dog’s personality is not necessarily suppressed.
It is organized.
The urge to hunt becomes a search pattern.
The enthusiasm for toys becomes reinforcement.
Physical energy becomes endurance.
Persistence becomes an asset.
Roma’s personality did not disappear during training.
It finally had somewhere useful to go.
Search Work Is Still a Game to the Dog
Human beings understand the stakes of disaster response.
Dogs do not need to.
A search dog does not have to understand earthquakes, structural collapse, emergency management, or international deployment.
Training gives the dog a much simpler task.
Search for a human scent.
Locate the person.
Alert the handler.
Receive the reward.
Repeat.
That simplicity is part of what makes well-trained dogs so effective.
For the handler, a pile of rubble may represent a collapsed building where families are waiting for news.
For the dog, it is a familiar search problem performed with a trusted partner.
The serious meaning belongs to the humans.
The dog’s enthusiasm for the work helps make that serious mission possible.
Then Roma Met Derek Moree
After completing the foundation’s search training, Roma was paired with Los Angeles County firefighter Derek Moree.
The official pairing took place on November 12, 2022, when SDF transferred four trained dogs to their new firefighter handlers. Roma and Moree joined California Task Force 2, Los Angeles County’s FEMA Urban Search and Rescue team.
A trained dog does not become deployment-ready simply because a leash changes hands.
The new partnership has to learn how to function as a team.
Moree had to learn Roma.
Roma had to learn him.
Handlers study the tiny details outsiders might miss.
How a dog searches when confident.
How she behaves when scent is weak.
When she needs direction.
When the smartest thing a handler can do is stop interfering and allow the dog’s nose to work.
Roma, meanwhile, had to learn that the person beside her was now part of every search.
Becoming a FEMA-Certified Team Took More Work
SDF’s program does not end with the initial pairing.
According to the foundation, dog-and-handler teams continue regular rubble training as they work toward the certification required for deployment.
Roma and Moree achieved FEMA certification in Sacramento on March 10, 2024. SDF lists them as a certified team with California Task Force 2 and notes that certified teams can be eligible for disaster deployments with their task forces.
Certification is not a decorative title.
The work demands reliability in an environment where mistakes matter.
A disaster site may contain unstable debris, machinery, noise, dust, unfamiliar people, and other emergency teams moving simultaneously.
A search dog must keep working through that complexity.
The same dog who once had more energy than an ordinary household could comfortably absorb was being trained precisely because she did not tire of having something to do.
Then the Call Came From Venezuela
For Roma and Moree, training became real in June 2026.
On the evening of June 24, two major earthquakes struck Venezuela within minutes of one another. The following day, Roma and Moree deployed with California Task Force 2 as part of USA-2.
They were not the only canine team.
Six SDF-trained dog-and-handler teams from Los Angeles County Fire deployed in the international response:
Lauren Cardin and Jet.
Arby Fields and Greta.
Eric Gray and Dee.
Louis Gudiel and Joey.
Nick Medina and Mattis.
And Derek Moree with Roma.
The teams were sent to assist in searching damaged and collapsed structures for survivors who might be trapped beneath rubble.
For Roma, years of training now had a real destination.
Rubble Is Where All That Energy Finally Makes Sense
Imagine the qualities required of a dog working in such an environment.
The terrain is irregular.
A normal walking surface may not exist.
There can be concrete slabs, exposed metal, voids, broken masonry, and unstable footing.
The handler cannot simply point at one location and explain what has happened.
The dog works through scent.
That demands physical confidence and concentration.
SDF’s training program is built around developing those abilities, with professional training followed by ongoing work with the firefighter handler.
This is where Roma’s story becomes especially striking.
The energy was always there.
The drive was always there.
Humans changed the context.
In one life, constant activity was difficult to manage.
In another, it became part of a lifesaving skill set.
The Venezuela Deployment Was More Than a Training Exercise
Los Angeles County Fire later said Roma and Moree were recognized for their work in Venezuela, describing the deployment as part of efforts that located and rescued people trapped beneath earthquake rubble.
SDF’s deployment record confirms that Roma and Moree were among the six foundation-trained Los Angeles County teams sent to assist in locating survivors after the earthquakes.
That distinction is worth preserving.
Search dogs do not work alone.
A canine indication is part of a much larger response involving handlers, engineers, rescue specialists, medical personnel, logistics teams, and other emergency workers.
Roma’s role is specialized.
Her nose can help direct human rescuers toward places where someone may be trapped.
The dog searches.
The handler reads the dog.
The rescue team acts on that information.
It is cooperative work in the most literal sense.
On September 24, Roma Walked Into a Very Different Setting
Three months after the Venezuela deployment, Roma and Moree were not standing on rubble.
They were being honored at Helen Woodward Animal Center’s annual Remember Me Thursday event.
On Thursday, September 24, 2026, the pair received the Pet Hero Award.
Los Angeles County Fire announced the honor the following day and identified Roma as a six-year-old black Labrador Retriever serving with Moree on the department’s Urban Search and Rescue team. The department specifically connected the award to their recent Venezuela mission.
Remember Me Thursday itself is an animal-welfare initiative associated with Helen Woodward Animal Center and focused on drawing attention to orphaned pets and adoption.
Roma’s presence there carried an obvious resonance.
She had once been a rescue dog needing someone to recognize where she belonged.
Now she was being honored for helping search for people in places rescuers were struggling to reach.
Roma’s Story Is Not Really About Turning a “Bad” Dog Into a Good One
That interpretation misses the point.
There is no evidence Roma needed her personality corrected.
She needed an environment compatible with it.
Her first owner reportedly recognized that Roma needed more attention and training than they could provide and surrendered her to rescue. From there, people with working-dog experience recognized something valuable in the very traits that had been difficult to manage.
That makes the story more useful than a simple transformation narrative.
Roma did not go from defective to exceptional.
The dog was always energetic.
Always driven.
Always busy.
What changed was what people asked her to do with those qualities.
Not Every High-Energy Dog Is a Search Dog
Roma’s outcome is extraordinary, and it should not create a misleading expectation.
Plenty of energetic shelter dogs will never work on disaster rubble.
Search programs evaluate dogs carefully.
Energy alone is not enough.
A potential search dog also needs the appropriate combination of confidence, motivation, athleticism, focus, sociability, trainability, and resilience.
Many wonderful dogs will not meet those specialized requirements.
That does not make them lesser dogs.
The larger lesson from Roma’s story is not that every difficult pet secretly belongs on a FEMA task force.
It is that behavior has context.
A trait can be challenging in one environment and useful in another.
Understanding the dog in front of you is more important than trying to fit every dog into the same definition of a good pet.
SDF Was Created Around That Possibility
The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation’s model intentionally connects two needs.
Rescue dogs need appropriate futures.
Emergency response teams need highly capable search dogs.
SDF recruits promising dogs from shelters and breed rescues, provides professional training at its National Training Center, and pairs qualified dogs with firefighters and other first responders. The foundation says its canine training phase generally lasts about eight to ten months before dogs are partnered with handlers, followed by further team training toward certification.
It is a demanding route.
Not every candidate completes it.
But for dogs like Roma, the program offers something ordinary adoption may not.
Work equal to their drive.
Moree Had Wanted Work With Purpose Too
There is an interesting parallel in the human half of the partnership.
SDF’s profile of Moree says he served in the Air Force before eventually pursuing firefighting. He later worked for the U.S. Forest Service on a Hotshot crew before joining Los Angeles County Fire.
After being exposed to urban search-and-rescue canine handlers, he became interested in doing the work himself.
Then came Roma.
Moree’s first impression of his new partner, according to SDF, was essentially that she was a handful.
That may be one of the most fitting details in the entire story.
Professional search-dog training had not turned Roma into a quiet Labrador.
She was still Roma.
Moree simply had the experience, support, and job structure to direct what she brought with her.
The Dog Once Considered Too Much Now Has a Job That Asks for More
More searching.
More focus.
More movement.
More persistence.
More willingness to keep going.
Those are not qualities you want to extinguish in a disaster search dog.
They are qualities you build around.
Roma’s story makes visible something animal rescuers encounter regularly.
The right home is not always the quietest home.
The right future is not always the one that asks an animal to change the most.
Sometimes the better question is where that animal’s existing temperament can succeed.
For Roma, the answer happened to include rubble piles, tug rewards, constant training, a firefighter partner, FEMA certification, and eventually an international disaster deployment.
Very few dogs will follow that path.
Roma did.
Her Second Chance Still Looks Like Work
There is a tendency to imagine rescue as the moment an animal finally gets to stop struggling.
For Roma, rescue led somewhere more active.
Training.
Rubble.
Search exercises.
Certification tests.
Deployment readiness.
Travel.
Real disaster scenes.
But dogs do not necessarily measure a good life by how little work they have to do.
For a highly driven working dog, purposeful activity can be enormously rewarding.
SDF’s description of Roma makes clear how enthusiastically she approaches that work.
The search itself channels the qualities she naturally brings.
When she succeeds, the reward reinforces them all over again.
The work is serious for Moree.
For Roma, it can still feel like the best game she knows.
On Paper, Her Story Contains a Lot of Milestones
Surrendered by an owner who could no longer manage her intensity.
Taken in by Southern California Cat Adoption Tails.
Discovered by SDF recruiters.
Selected for search training.
Paired with Moree on November 12, 2022.
FEMA-certified on March 10, 2024.
Deployed to Venezuela on June 25, 2026.
Honored with the Pet Hero Award on September 24, 2026.
Those dates make a clean timeline.
The more interesting thread running through them is simpler.
Roma kept being the same kind of dog.
Humans became better at understanding what to do with her.
The Energy Never Needed to Disappear
Somewhere in Roma’s early life, a person looked at a young black Labrador whose energy seemed endless and reached the reasonable conclusion that they could not provide what she needed.
That could have been the end of the story people told about her.
Too much energy.
Too demanding.
Too difficult.
Instead, rescue workers and search-dog trainers saw another possibility.
That energy could carry her over rubble.
That persistence could keep her searching.
That obsession with activity could become motivation.
That intensity could be paired with training precise enough to make it useful during disasters.
Today, when Roma moves across a search site beside Derek Moree, she has not become a different dog from the one who once overwhelmed an ordinary home.
She is still busy.
Still enthusiastic.
Still driven.
The difference is that nobody is asking those qualities to disappear anymore.
They are asking her to use them.
And somewhere beneath broken concrete, when Roma’s nose tells her a person may be there, all that energy finally has exactly the job it was waiting for.
