Crimebusting dogs show patient side
From Stuff.co, New Zealand.
Crimebusting dogs show patient side
By EMILY WATT - The Dominion Post
TOP DOG: Six-year-old Kenneth Nielsen, who is being treated for cancer, gives Matt Fage a hand leading police dog Blade during a visit to Wellington Hospital yesterday. Blade, who has retired from police duties, is himself recovering from cancer. MAARTEN HOLL
You might think Blade has a better idea than most dogs what it is like for the sick children at Wellington Hospital.
Recovering from cancer himself, the retired police dog and his colleagues Asco and Utah, the national police dog champion, paid a visit to the children yesterday.
Six-year-old Kenneth Nielsen, who is being treated for cancer, had a huge smile as Blade padded into his bedroom.
Kenneth has been travelling to Wellington Hospital from his home in Feilding for the past year.
Though he has his favourite toys in hospital, it was nice to have a visit from a dog, he said.
Blade and partner Matt Fage have become regular visitors to the children's ward. This is the first visit for Blade since he had surgery for his own cancer.
Just weeks after Blade was officially retired in August, Mr Fage found a lump on the dog's left front leg. Massey University vets operated, but his recovery has been hampered by infections. "It was touch and go," Mr Fage said. "I thought we were going to lose him."
But the dog - who caught more than 1000 crooks, found a dozen missing people and survived being stabbed with a pitchfork and hit on the head with a machete in his seven-year career - did not give up.
Utah and partner Ben O'Connor, and Asco and partner Alf Sawyer, are also regular visitors, often in their own time.
Mr O'Connor said the dogs had no problem displaying their softer side with the young patients.
As another nine-year-old grinned and patted the dogs, one of the hospital staff noted: "That's the first smile I've seen on him today."
The visits were the idea of Lower Hutt constable Dean Gifford, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour last year.
While spending time in hospital for treatment, he realised children might be cheered up by visits from the dog section.
