It has often been said that when you combine children with puppy dogs you have a winning combination and it escalates the “aww” factor greatly. If that is so, and it certainly appeared that way this past Friday when Deputy K-9 Red visited with 80 kindergarten and first grade children at the San Jacinto Elementary School in Liberty, then it was a smashing success for Deputy K-9 Red as well as the adoring children who hugged and petted Red to his delight during his two-hour visit.
In December 2019, K-9 Red was sworn in by Liberty County Sheriff Bobby Rader as an active K-9 within his agency to be used as a community service K-9 that can relate and interact with children and adults in more of an “officer friendly” manner rather than the more stern and much more police related approach of K-9s that deal exclusively in narcotic detection and/or tracking.
“These trained K-9s often do not play well with others and can have rather aggressive attitudes. Not so with K-9 Red who can be petted to sleep by a child or will shake hands (paws) for a simple peanut butter cookie treat,” said Capt. Ken DeFoor in an emailed statement.
Red wandered up to Reserve Deputy William Hall’s residence about a year ago with what was clearly physical abuse and injuries. With the Hall family, Red found his forever home. His story caught the attention of a KTRK news reporter who asked to do a news story about the very positive side of law enforcement and K-9 Red. Deputy Hall and his family, who have spent over $4,000 of their own money on obedience training for K-9 Red with more training in the near future, quickly agreed to let Red have his 15 minutes of fame on television while interacting with children.
With the gracious approval of Liberty ISD Superintendent Cody Abshire and Elementary School Principal Tom Connelly, as well as the approval of the students’ parents, KTRK’s film crew captured this awesome interaction of Deputy K-9 Red and the children in a very emotion-filled, two-hour session. The show is expected to air within the next two weeks in the local area and may go to affiliate stations in New York, Los Angeles and all across the nation as well.
In the future, Deputy K-9 Red will also be available to the Multi-County Crime Stoppers organization for its special events, as well as civic groups, schools, churches or any other type function that would like to have a K-9 interacting with the public and representing the LCSO or law enforcement in general.
“At the end of this day’s school appearance, it was clear the children were still fully charged and energized but Deputy K-9 Red, and pardon this pun, was ‘dog tired’ and falling asleep after receiving so many hugs and tummy rubs from the children,” DeFoor said.