Professional meteorite hunters from across the United States are in McLennan County looking for something that came from beyond the earth.
They're looking for black rocks that look like pieces of charcoal. For them, it's a very serious business.
"Once a team has established hunting rights on a piece of land, we don't want to see another team there," meteorite hunter Geoffrey Notkin said.
Because if that other team is there Notkin said "we get very territorial and say, 'Well my team's got the rights for this land, we own this land for three days.'"
Days of hunting are not only highly competitive, they're physically exhausting.
But for a different kind of hunter, it's not so bad.
Hopper is a dog that can be considered a meteorite hunter.
In fact, she's found one already. She retrieved a meteorite and returned it to her owner's front porch.
"I was like so that's what that black rock is that my dog Hopper brought up," Hopper's owner, Pauline Alligood, said.
Meteorite hunters believe the sulfurous smell of the meteorite may have prompted Hopper to pick up the meteorite, or perhaps she just saw it bouncing and fetched it. Another possible explanation is that some dogs have a rock gathering trait.
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Meteorite Hunter
News 8’s Bonnie Gonzalez shares the story of the meteorite hunters and their new-found four-legged friend, Hopper.
 
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Meteorite hunter Rob Wesel, from Portland, Ore., bought the rock, and like the rest of his fellow hunters, has become quite attached to the furry finder.
So Wesel can forever keep the memory of the rock that Hopper found, he had the dog's footprint imprinted on a document that tells her story.
Just as she brought a piece of space to her owner's porch, she's bringing something special into the lives of her new friends.
"She's all around. She's kind of a mascot for this [meteorite] fall. And we're hoping she finds another," Wesel said.
Whether she finds another or not, this rock from space has both man and canine playing a stellar game of fetch.
If you’d like to find out more information about Geoffrey Notkin’s Aerolite Meteorites, click the link!
