The Last Ship Inspired Dog Names

In the television series The Last Ship, Kara is a strong and capable United States Navy officer. During a trial of the vaccine, she discovers she is pregnant with crewmate Danny Green’s child; fortunately, the vaccine is effective in fighting the disease and she and her son become immune to the Red Flu. After giving birth to her son, Frankie, she continues in her career, eventually becoming the Commander of the Nathan James. She is courageous and caring throughout the show, and along with the many commendations that she had received prior to the events related on The Last Ship, she earns both a Silver Star and a Purple Heart for her actions after the outbreak.

For Kara, a Pit Bull-type dog in Colorado, an unexpected pregnancy was a turning point for her life as well. When she became pregnant, her owners decided that they were unable to handle the burden of puppies and made some phone calls in an effort to rehome her. Fortunately, one of the calls that they made was to the no-kill facility Canyon Lake Animal Shelter Society, in Canyon Lake, TX. While the facility itself was filled to capacity, the staff at CLASS was able to locate a safe foster home for both her and her puppies. Kara remained at her foster home for eight weeks until her pups were old enough to be adopted out. The time allowed Angie Gilstrap, the president of CLASS, to better observe Kara, and Angie discovered that Kara had an intense ball chasing drive, a quality often sought by those who train detection dogs. She contacted Brad Croft, the founder of the Universal K9 program, which was developed to train rescued Pit Bull variety dogs to work in law enforcement, and Kara was flown to Colorado to begin training.

Dawn Havens, a law enforcement officer who also volunteered with the Colorado Mounted Rangers, contacted Universal K9 to ask them how much it would cost to start a K9 unit after learning about another dog that they had trained, Kiah, who had become the first Pit Bull-type dog to join the New York state police department. Due to certain preconceptions that some people have about Pit Bull-type dogs, they are banned in seven counties in Colorado, and in order to challenge those preconceived notions, Brad told Dawn that Universal K9 would fully fund the project. Kara has since been trained to detect not only narcotics, but also to find lost people, and has begun her work as an official K9 officer and an ambassador of the breed.