I dove into this piece knowing exactly what I was in for—loss, heartache, animal pain—but I read it anyway. Because a story like this—about the beautiful, unique bond between a human and a dog—ultimately uplifts. Dave Wedge’s story about officer Bill Cushing and a one-in-a-million German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois tracker named Kitt is an intimate look at the partnership and love between an officer and a K-9.
About halfway through Kitt and Cushing’s training, just before Labor Day weekend 2011, Cushing and Kitt went to the prison complex for a long, challenging tracking test to determine if the dog was taking to his instruction. A trainer, posing as a human decoy—clad in a protective bite suit—hid hundreds of yards away from the prison. Kitt picked up the scent and aggressively pursued, staying on the trail across concrete, grassy fields, thick brush, and a dirt path. When he spotted the trainer posing as a suspect, Kitt leaped at him, flying 10 feet through the air before latching onto the human decoy and nearly knocking him to the ground. Holy shit, Cushing thought. This dog actually works.
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