Page 484 - NIXBOOK

At the end of the run I was pretty much done but Kilo was acting like he could keep going and repeat it a couple more time,
easily. BTW, if you think running with a dog is going to help your pace…it won’t. Even a little sideways pulling on the leash every
now and then is enough to wear a guy down.

Okay so things were going great, and then all of a sudden they weren’t. To make a long, drama-filled story short, the police chief
got fired for inappropriate behavior with the new young blonde female patrol officer.

This left us suddenly without a chief. The mayor, desperate to find somebody to run the ship, hired back a former old deputy
chief to be an interim – temporary – police chief. His state police commission had long expired, so instead of “Police Chief” he
was hired as a “Public Safety Director”, and he would not get a uniform. He was fine with that, because his special contract pay
was $10,000 a month. All he had to do was keep the place from imploding; no new projects required.
As the ink was drying, the deputy chief called me into his office. He told me that he had some bad news, and he felt bad to be
the messenger, but he was going to help me get through this. “The new chief, as it turns out, is deadly allergic to dogs. The only
way he would take this job is if Kilo can stay out of the office while he’s here.” My jaw dropped, because this is what we would
call a major change in working conditions. “So I have to leave Kilo in the garage every time I come into the office?” I asked. “Well
hang on, “ he continued. “It gets a little worse. The chief is so allergic, Kilo can’t come into the office AT ALL, even when he’s
not here.” The deputy chief looked sad. “I know this sucks, and I’ll do what I can to make this better for you and Kilo, but
yeah..he’s going to have to stay out of the office.”

Well isn’t that interesting. That conversation was actually a complete work of fiction; it didn’t happen. It should have, but didn’t.
No, what really happened is that the deputy chief, walking by me one morning – literally in passing – said “Nick! Have you heard
the news?” I said “Uh..no?” Barely looking at me, he continued walking and said “Don’t bring Kilo into the office anymore, the
new chief is allergic to dogs.” And then he kept walking. Sympathy level: zero. I was stunned.
I knew it would take probably 8 months for the city to find and hire a new chief. 8 months of my partner being banished from
the office, where he loved to run into every day (actually several times a day) and play with the clerks and other officers. I
realized that this was going to piss me off and leave me in a permanent, constant state of bitterness for about, oh, the next 8
months. So I did a rage quit, and told my sergeant to go find a new k9 handler, who would be so happy to get the job that he
wouldn’t be half as bitter as me.

Kilo did great with his next handler, Officer Craig Keller. Craig let Kilo
into his house, and he even let him sleep on his bed. He told me that
it was a common occurrence for Kilo to move over to Craig’s side of
the bed when he got up and if he came back and tried to shove Kilo
off his pillow Kilo would usually growl at him. And Craig and Kilo
went on to have lots of adventures together, and they caught a lot of
bad guys, and literally dozens of drug dealer cars were impounded
and searched, with varying levels of success.

Was I sad to leave turn over the leash? Yes, of course. But it was better
for me than to be royally pissed off every day for the next eight
months. Which was, in fact, how long it took to hire the next new
police chief.