Ripley, a former shelter dog, walks with his handler, Jason Vasquez, just before the rescue of a teen in Nepal.

The team from the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation helped find a 15-year-old boy alive in the wreckage in Nepal five days after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck. Four of the six dogs on the California-based rescue team were rescued themselves from animal shelters and then trained to save lives. They had drive and energy levels that could make them difficult pets, but made them well suited to disaster recovery work. They’re now working in dangerous conditions in Nepal. "When there’s a live victim and a potential to save someone, we’ll risk it all,” California firefighter Andrew Olvera told NBC News. His canine partner, Stetson, was saved from a shelter by Labs and Friends Rescue in San Diego. — Read it at the Huffington Post