Officer Saves K-9 Partner
WANE TV Ch 15 ^ | 4 OCT 2007 | WANE-TV
(Fort Wayne, IN)

Samo is fine now, but his tennis ball almost killed him.

There are ten full-time members of the Ligonier Police Department, but Tuesday night that number almost dropped to nine. Thanks to CPR and some quick thinking, Officer Josh Halsey saved his partner, but he says when he saw him lying motionless on the ground it was one of the scariest moments of his life. "I came up to him and when I grabbed him he just flopped," said Halsey. "He was lifeless."

Halsey's partner is not a typical police officer. He is a 70 lb. german shepherd, named Samo. He is also one half of the Ligonier Police Department's K-9 unit.

"He's a very loving dog," said Halsey, "I could take him up to anybody and he would just want to be loved on."

When Samo isn't patrolling the streets of Ligonier he plays with a tennis ball to stay active, but that tennis ball would be more than a toy to Samo, it would come close to killing him.

Halsey says when he grabbed Samo from the ground, he was lifeless. "Hundreds of things go through your mind, but the first thing I thought was, I lost my dog," he said. Fortunately for Halsey, he did not lose his dog. The tennis ball Samo had been playing with was lodged inside his throat. Halsey performed CPR, and removed the tennis ball. Shortly after, Samo came back to life.

Josh took Samo to a Fort Wayne veterinarian, and told his fellow police officers what happened. Bryan Shearer, Chief of Police with the Ligonier Police Department, said he couldn't believe what happened. "It was actually a partner saving a partner," he said.

The veterinarian told Halsey Samo is fine, and swallowing the tennis ball was a freak accident, probably caused by a hiccup or an involuntary reaction, but there is no reason to think it will happen again.

The police department gave Samo a few days off after the accident, but he will be back on duty Friday night.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 1:10 pm and is filed under General Dogs' Topics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.