Sometimes a young person can make all the difference in a dog's life. And in the case of an 8-year old Indiana girl, she made all the difference to a local sheriff's department and their K-9 unit. 

Saddened by the death of a police dog, Valerie Shaffer went door to door collecting donations in a peanut butter jar and ended up raising $3200 to help the local sheriff buy a replacement dog. 

A young K-9 called Ali arrived for duty this month and replaces a police dog named Trax, who was accidentally killed in the line of duty last year. Originally Ali wasn’t coming until later in the year, but Valerie’s hard work helped the dog come sooner.

Valerie is a Brownie Scout and was trying to think of her good deed to do last November, so she asked her grandfather, Bud Linville, for ideas. He told her about Trax, and "she collected $70 that day," Linville said. That got her started, and soon she was collecting money from around Evansville. She said she was inspired to collect the money "because I like dogs, and I wanted to help." Valerie also said she wanted to "make something good out of something bad."

Before long she drummed up donations in her neighborhood, at popular chain stores and from local businesses and corporations as well. Vanderburgh County Sheriff Eric Williams said of her achievement: "Valerie’s got a great career in front of her in terms of not-for-profit fundraising or something like that." He said her generosity and fundraising were the biggest factors in his departments $14,000 purchase of the 15-month-old German shepherd, as they had been around $3000 short. "I have to assume that her inspiration made an awful big difference in all those other people who gave money," said Williams. He might be right about that, given Valerie sold the most Girl Scout cookies in her troop last year as well!

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