Meeting Hercules
On August 7th, we had a very special guest come visit us. Hercules the airport dog came to visit us at the Bob Burdette Center. Hercules is a border collie who works as a wildlife patrol dog at the West Virginia International Yeager Airport in Charleston, WV. He and his partner in training, Ned, work together to protect the airstrip from other animals with the help of their handler Chris Keyser. Hercules and his team are an important part of the Yeager Airport and that is documented in his book.
Taylor Raab, who kindly arranged the meeting between us and Hercules, read Hercules’s book aloud to us. The book follows Hercules finding a lost toy and showing it around Yeager Airport. The book can be purchased here or by clicking on the image.
New Friends for Hercules
Throughout his visit, we all got to see Hercules in action! We also got to meet Hercules and get up close and personal with him. Hercules and Chris did a demonstration of how Hercules would chase birds away and showed us how it looked during training. We also got to pet Hercules and ask questions about him. Just like Hercules made a new friend in his book, he made many new friends at the center.
Local Celebrity
Hercules has another job outside of protecting the airstrip and comforting nervous passengers. He also serves as a pseudo mascot for the airport and has captured the hearts of many on social media. Hercules is a bit of an internet star with over 4,000 followers on Instagram and we were featured on Hercules’s page.
Not only found on Instagram, Hercules along with Ned and Chris are also able to be found on Tiktok. His Tiktok page has over 54,000 followers.
Hercules brought so much joy to us and we are so appreciative of Taylor Raab for the storytime and for arranging this meetup. Thank you!
