Valley woman's story in animal rescue magazine

Debra Ross' story of volunteering to help animals lost in Katrina made the cover of the winter 2006 edition of the United Animal Nations Journal.

The cover features the Labrador retriever that the Gardnerville resident helped when she was working at the Emergency Animal Rescue Service shelter in the aftermath of the hurricane that devastated New Orleans.

The dog was one of 239 at the emergency shelter and developed a bond with Debra in the week that she was volunteering. She wanted to become his foster owner until his owner could be found.

But the day he was to leave for Nevada, his owner contacted the North Carolina shelter where he was being kept.

It turns out his real name was Sir Romeo and his owner had been looking for him since she was forced to leave him behind when rescue boats took her from her flooded home.

Debra paid for plane tickets for herself and Sir Romeo's owner to gather in North Carolina with the dog.

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Big surprise, Glenbrook is the 20th most expensive ZIP Code in the United States with a median home sale price of $1.61 million, according to Forbes Magazine.

That made it the most expensive place to live in Nevada. Glenbrook is not the only Tahoe address on the list. Zephyr Cove was number 364 with a median home price of $733,500 and Incline Village barely squeaked onto the list at number 466 with a median home price of $677,500.

Neither of those ZIP codes was the second most expensive in the state. That honor when to Henderson, of course.

That Henderson hit number 237 on the list with a median home value of $802,500 was a shock to me.

We used to travel through Henderson on our way to Lake Mead when I was a boy and it was definitely a factory town.

Last time I spent any time there was when the Pepcon Plant blew up in 1988. Who knew what a difference 18 years could make.

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Dan Walters talk to the Kiwanis last week was fantastic and I would suggest anyone who has an opportunity, check it out.

One of my favorite parts didn't get into the story in Sunday's edition, but I want to share it here.

As someone who has served overseas, I've had a chance to see first-hand how native cultures adapt to our presence and the Afghans were no exception.

Dan described how during training, the soldiers would fly down an arroyo called the bowling alley to conduct target practice.

Rather than hunt up and down the canyon for spent shell casings, the Afghans set up rock targets for the Americans. That way most of the shell casings would be in one place so they could collect them to melt down and reuse the brass.

When a large can was set up for target practice, Walters said an enterprising Afghan came out with a tractor to haul it away.

"We told him he could have it after we were done and he ended up guarding it for us," Walters said.

n Kurt Hildebrand is editor of The Record-Courier. Reach him at khildebrand@recordcourier.com and 782-5121, ext. 215.