LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. – Firefighters’ hands are sometimes still covered in soot and ash when Mayzie greets them at fire camps. These first responders are usually just coming off the fire line for food, a shower and whatever sleep they can get after 12 hours overnight fighting a fire—before having to go back out and do it all again.

“It’s super important what she does,” Mayzie’s human, Adrienne Steurer, said, “because she doesn’t ask questions about how you’re feeling. She just shows up, and she just offers comfort.”

With perked ears and tan eyebrows contrasting against her black fur, the first responder therapy dog patiently waits in her red vest. No papers seal her place in a fancy K-9 lineage, but the mutt has found her place at these camps, making all the difference in morale for firefighters who are sometimes away from home for weeks at a time.

“Most of them will say, ‘this is the best part of my day,'” Steurer said.

For her dedication, providing over 230 visits to first responders in Northern California and Nevada, where she has comforted over 3,000 first responders, Mayzie has been nominated for this year’s First Responder Paws Therapy Dog Award. The annual contest recognizes first responder dogs across the nation.

In addition to visiting fire camps, these first responder dogs also stop by fire houses and police stations. For Mayzie, that includes the South Lake Tahoe Police Department, Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District, Lake Valley Fire, Cal Tahoe EMS and South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue.

“We just come in,” Steurer said, “and you can feel the stress level drop.”

Mayzie isn’t overbearing, jumping up and down; she’s naturally calm, Steurer describes, and waits patiently, letting people come to her.

When first responders do come to her, she leans into them. And once she has their attention, she won’t let them stop petting her, grunting or leaning harder if they do stop.

“Either for her own personal agenda or because she knows that that’s helping them,” Steurer said, laughing, “but she likes to interact with the first responders that way.”

After visiting the South Lake region on summer camping trips, Mayzie and her family recently made South Lake Tahoe their permanent home and now regularly visit first responder posts in the region.

In addition to her certification as a first responder therapy dog, Mayzie has 3 American Kennel Club titles based on behavior and obedience, from basic manners and staying calm in an elevator, to remaining undistracted at an outdoor restaurant or pet friendly store. She also has earned 3 AKC titles for her therapy dog visits.

Being a rescue dog, Mayzie has a comeback story of her own. She was abandoned at a Sacramento shelter around her first birthday. Then, following her spay surgery, Mayzie became extremely sick, experiencing aspiration pneumonia. She endured coughing and being unable to catch her breath for weeks while on IV fluids. 

“She almost didn’t make it,” Steurer said.

Miraculously, Mayzie pulled through, and now, at eight years old, continues to shine, whether it’s at a first responder visit or inventorying her neighborhood’s smells on her daily walk.

A public voting period for the First Responder Paws Therapy Dog Award occurs October 5-19.

To vote for Mayzie, visit fherehab.com/first-responder-paws-award

The top 10 finalists are announced Monday, Nov. 2, and the winner is announced Friday, Nov. 13.