Salute To A Brave Dog Called Blade

[Mila's Mum]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4366742/Sa...og-called-Blade

Blade – the police dog who beat cancer, a pitchfork attack and more than 1000 criminals – has died in his owner's arms.

Since 2007 Blade has been retired, living as a family pet with his handler, Senior Constable Matt Fage from the Wellington police dog section.

Mr Fage said 12-year-old Blade died in his arms early on Tuesday morning. The death, from old age, was "devastating".

"He was a super-loved working partner. He gave 100 per cent at everything and just kept on going."

Blade caught more than 1000 criminals, found a dozen missing people and survived being stabbed with a pitchfork and hit with a machete in his seven-year career.

Mr Fage said Blade almost certainly saved three lives.

In 2003 he and another officer were cornered by a man with a pitchfork but Blade took the blow, surviving because he got hit in his harness. He got a bravery award.

A couple of years later he tracked down a fleeing offender in the Hutt River. If the man had not been found he would probably have drowned, Mr Fage said.

He also helped disarm a man in Porirua holding a knife to a six-year-old's throat, earning a bravery award for the second time.

Mr Fage said Blade would be remembered as a "proud dog".

Since retiring in 2007, he had been treated successfully for cancer.

He got along with Mr Fage's new police dog – Xoset, or "X". "Every day [blade] still would go out by the dog van – every morning wanting to go. He made as good a family pet as a police dog."

Blade continued to provide a public service after he retired, visiting children at Wellington Hospital. "He was just so tolerant."

[Kynta]

RIP Blade

What a wonderful service he has given.

[k9angel]

R.I.P. Blade. What a hero.