Yesterday evening we received the sad news that at the ripe old age of sixteen and a half years old, Bolton MRTs first ’mountain rescue search dog,’ ’Search dog Blue,’ sadly passed away.

This sad news came from former Bolton MRT member and former SARDA handler Paul Baxendale, ’Blues’ owner and handler.

Blue and Paul operated within the team for many years, as a fully graded search and rescue dog team, also working in support of a great many other MRTs in their work as well.

Besides being a Search and Rescue Dog, Blue was also a much loved family pet to Paul, his wife Yolande and son George, and we are sure she will be missed by many.

The teams condolences are extended to Paul and his family over the loss of that little bundle of energy those of us in the team at the time knew as ’Search Dog Blue.’