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Pearl River County honors fallen K9 Officer Soyer
Today, the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department honored one of their own in the form of K9 Officer Soyer.If you were traveling down Highway 11 near Picayune and Poplarville this morning, you probably have noticed the long line of law enforcement vehicles that were on the road in a procession to honor fallen K9 Officer Soyer. Officer Austin Champagne said, “I’ll remember him as my best friend. We spent every hour every day. He lived with me. He slept in my room with me. We were just always together.”Officer Champagne would spend just over two years with K9 Officer Soyer, but those years were a lifetime’s worth for the partners. “yeah, he had my back, I had his. He connects really well with the community. He’s a really good animal as far as, you know, going to schools and playing with kids and just getting bad guys off the street. He did it all.”Soyer was as versatile as they come. He was trained as a drug dog and could apprehend a suspect with the best of them. K9 Soyer also served in the U.S. military.But Champagne will always remember the great times he shared with him in the field, even at the end. “So, man, we had one guy. He wrecked one time on the highway, and then he hauled butt into a yard, and then he jumped into a back of a pickup truck. Well, me and Soyer ran up to the pickup truck, and he wanted to get in there so bad. So, he kind of looked at me and I looked at him, I just picked him up and threw him in the back of the truck. And then he got a hold of them and, you know, it was history after that.”K9 Soyer died this week due to health complications, but Champagne looked past Soyer’s struggles at the end of his life to know he will be okay. “I know he’s up there running around, you know, finally got his legs back. I hated to see him struggling here at the end, but I’m glad that he’s no longer in pain. He’s at peace.”
