Handler – Officer Darron Granger<\/p>\n
The Anderson Police Department has been a bit quieter this week \u2013 at least \u2013 it\u2019s been a bit quieter in the back of Officer Darron Granger\u2019s police cruiser. \u201cThey really do become your friend and so this past week at work patrolling without him has been\u2026there\u2019s nobody to talk to,\u201d Granger said. \u201cIt\u2019s been lonely. A lot of pet owners understand, if you have ever had a pet, it becomes part of your family.\u201d Granger lost his K-9 partner Truman last week, the six-year old Belgian Malinois had to be euthanized after complications from cancer. Granger said he had become lethargic and lost close to 20 pounds since June. \u201cIt was kind of hard. It\u2019s just like in people, it eats away at you,\u201d Granger said. Truman\u2019s death marks the third police dog the department has lost in the past three years. Two others, Kilo and Magnum, were both killed two months apart in 2012 while trying to apprehend suspects. The department still has three, but would like to replace Truman and bring the department\u2019s total back to four, Granger said. The trouble is, other dogs aren\u2019t like Truman. Granger said most of the other police dogs are bred in Europe and can cost upwards of $12,000, Granger said. The department\u2019s operating budget for the K9 unit is closer to $3,500. Truman stood out, Granger says, because was born and trained in Indiana. Granger called him a \u201cdog that was trained to do police work,\u201d not a \u201cpolice dog\u201d and touted the Truman\u2019s uncanny ability to be both friendly to suspects and vicious when commanded. \u201cHe was a pretty good partner to have,\u201d Granger said referring to Truman. \u201cYou are with them more than you are with your family. You work 40 hours a week and you take them home too.\u201d While Kilo and Magnum have been memorialized in the front lobby of the police department, it\u2019s unlikely Truman will receive the same tribute because he did not die in the line of duty. Granger says he\u2019s not bothered by it, and decided to bury Truman under his favorite pine tree at his home next to where his first police dog, Armand, is buried. \u201cThat\u2019s where they liked to lay down and that\u2019s where they are going to lay at,\u201d Granger said, staring at the Truman\u2019s still fresh burial plot. \u201cTime heals everything.\u201d The department is planning a golf outing in late September in hopes of raising funds to buy a replacement police dog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Handler – Officer Darron Granger The Anderson Police Department has been a bit quieter this week \u2013 at least \u2013 it\u2019s been a bit quieter in the back of Officer Darron Granger\u2019s police cruiser. \u201cThey really do become your friend and so this past week at work patrolling without him has been\u2026there\u2019s nobody to talk …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-k9memorial","tag-in"],"yoast_head":"\n