It’s not every day a celebrity calls and offers you money.

Having come down with a virus, Dee Wild of Lacombe was miserable Wednesday. A simple head cold had spread like wildfire through her workplace, forcing her to call in sick and take it easy for the day.

Resting up at home, an unknown number chimed in on Wild’s phone around 3 that afternoon.

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She mustered a scraggly “hello” when the voice on the other end, proud and cheerful, said, “Hi Dee, this is Jenny Jones.”

In fact it was the famed former talk show host calling Wild. She wasn’t offering sympathy or a get well soon wish. Jones had called to offer money.

The story begins many years ago when Wild discovered her uncanny ability to work with dogs, which later steered her into the dog handling industry.

There she met a couple, professionals with handling canines, who basically took her under their paws and for the next several years taught her everything there is to know about training dogs.

Using the training she acquired from the experience, she opened an obedience school in St. Tammany Parish. Many years later, Wild has become the parish’s unofficial dog whisperer.

While operating the obedience school, friend and Pearl River resident Lisa Higgins commented to Wild the prevalence of canine search and rescue teams across the country.

With a new challenge to be met, Wild, along with Higgins, founded the state’s first and only canine search and rescue organization in 1989. What began with two puppies and two people has bloomed into a full-fledged search and rescue team with over a dozen canines and their handlers.

There’s a catch, though. Wild and the others operate the search and rescue organization entirely for free.

The rigorous training certifications, travel expenses, operating costs and hours upon hours of time are all paid for out of pocket, but it’s worth it, she said.

Wild easily recalled their first mission.

“Our very first call…three teenagers drowned in the Amite River,” she said, explaining the trio had set out for a hike. At some point, they connected each other with a rope for safety.

“When they were walking alongside the river, one must have slipped in and took the other two in, too,” Wild said.

When authorities arrived they found two of the teens still attached to the rope dead in the water. They called Wild in to help locate the other.

“The dog indicated within minutes of working the scene where the other teen was, but it took us hours to find the body because it was under 4 feet of water and 3 feet of sand,” she said.

Even though her first search and rescue mission was such a tragedy, she persevered and now finds comfort in what she does.

Finding the remains of people has “happened more times than not, but the thing about it is you bring closure to a family, and that’s why you do it,” Wild said. “Everyone wants to bury their loved ones the right way.”

Since the first call, Wild and her crew have participated in over 680 missions across the continent, including in Alaska and Canada. From a confused Alzheimer’s patient to a lost child to a major event, Wild and her 9-year-old yellow Labrador retriever, Sky, have seen it all.

However, times became trying for the group when they were called in to help find people after Katrina. With cellular towers down, communication between team members was nonexistent.

Last year, she learned of Jenny Jones’ Jenny’s Heroes foundation that pledged to distribute $1 million to deserving individuals.

Wild applied for a $7,000 grant to purchase 15 ham radios so the team wouldn’t have to rely on cell phones while on a scene.

And Wednesday she received a surprise call from Jones, vowing to buy the radios for her team.

“I’ve seen how these dogs are just amazing and fearless when they go in and locate missing people, but then I found out they (Dee’s team) pay for everything themselves. I had to help them out,” Jones said in a phone interview .

Her $1 million pledge was only supposed to run through 2008, but after receiving so many heartfelt applications and with the downswing in the economy, Jones decided to hand out another $1 million for 2009.

Wild was chosen as the third “Hero” this year to receive money from Jones.

Jones was planning to call Wild at her workplace in Mandeville, but plans changed when she found out Wild called in sick.

“I’ve never called anyone on their sick bed before,” Jones said, laughing. “But it seemed to lift her spirits because she sounded like a different person by the end of the conversation.”

“It was amazing,” Wild said of the phone call, adding Jones even called her later that night to check up on her cold. “She’s a very caring person.”

Wild is the only Louisiana resident to be penned one of Jenny’s Heroes.