Deputy K-9 Red visits San Jac Elementary

t has often been said that when you combine children with puppy dogs you have a winning combination and it escalates the “awwww” 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 Liberty ISD San Jacinto Elementary School, 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 for over a two hour visit.

It was the first of December of 2019 that K-9 Red was actually 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-9’s that deals exclusively in narcotic detection and/or tracking. These trained K-9’s 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.

A recent Press Release by the LCSO regarding Red who wandered up to Reserve Deputy William Hall’s residence about a year ago with what was clearly physical abuse and injuries but found his forever home with the Hall family caught the attention of a Channel 13 news reporter who ask 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 I.S.D Superintendent Cody Abshier and Elementary School Principal Tom Connelly as well as the approval of the student’s parents, Channel 13 film crew captured this awesome interaction of Deputy K-9 Red and the children in a very emotional filled two hour session. The news department told everyone they hope to air the program within the next two weeks in our local area and it will go to their 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 their 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.