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Died – 1/11/17
Handler – Officer Christopher Morgan
Smokey put down after four years of service
Celebrating a career of success and friendship, Live Oak police said goodbye to Smokey the K-9 Wednesday after four years of service. He was put down Wednesday morning after his handler decided the suffering of a neurological disorder was too much for the dog to bear. Forty of his brothers in blue and friends he made in the community attended the memorial at police headquarters. “He was great. He was great with the kids,” said Marie Atkinson, president of Live Oak Citizens Assisting Police, a community policing group. Atkinson remembers groups of children petting the K-9 after he showed off crime-fighting skills during a junior police academy. She said he could change from being an officer instantly. “Sometimes it would be four, five kids at the same time. Someone would be touching his tail or his ears or his head,” Atkinson said. “He was just like a big house pet.” The Live Oak police chief and the two K-9 handlers in the force of 32 officers spoke and gave anecdotes during a slideshow of favorite pictures. “I’ve never seen a dog’s mouth go over a helmet,” said K-9 unit officer David Wall of the first time he and Smokey met. Smokey had bitten him on the head during SWAT training. “I thought he was going to pop me like a grape,” Wall said. Smokey’s ashes sit in a wooden box on a table upfront next to a framed picture. Playing cards bearing his likeness, which the officers would hand out to children, were spread out Wednesday. Highlights of the German shepherd’s service included $300,000 in cash seized and kilos of drugs sniffed out, though many officers agreed his work in the community stood out. “[Not only was it] getting the dope off the street, getting the money off the street, but also was his interaction with people,” said Lt. Matt Malone, with Live Oak police. “This has absolutely been the worst,” Smokey’s handler, Christopher Morgan, said. Vets diagnosed Smokey with a neurological disorder in September. A month later, he was off the streets. With the dog losing the use of his back legs, with bladder and liver failure, Morgan himself made the call. For two years, the Morgan had worked side-by-side with Smokey. The 9 1/2-year-old dog lived with him and his family. “Whenever we’d come home he would crawl in bed with my daughter, he would sleep there for a while, and eventually, he would make his way to our room,” Morgan said. Morgan remembers the last thing he told his partner as vets put him down. “I love you, and I’ll see you when I see you,” Morgan said.
