From Mississippi stray to national hero: Canyon the rescue dog now saves people for a living

Canyon was found on the streets of Mississippi in 2021 — underweight, overlooked, and bursting with energy nobody had a use for. Handler Christy Bormann spotted that energy in a social-media post and saw a search dog in it. Canyon trained up to federal standards, earned FEMA certification with Texas A&M Task Force 1, and has since deployed to the Maui wildfires, Hurricane Helene and Texas flash floods, searching rubble and floodwater for survivors. This week the ASPCA named him its 2026 Humane Awards Dog of the Year — the stray nobody wanted, now the dog everybody calls.