Honoring the 27 service dogs who protected a city, and the community that came together to remember them.
When the tarp came off, a gray granite bust of a German shepherd was revealed, perched atop a black granite base. "Isn't it amazing?" one of the supporters who'd raised the money said. "It looks like he's guarding the whole place."
Standing more than six feet tall outside the Anaheim Police Department's East Station, the memorial honors the 27 K-9s that served the city, from Cliff, one of the unit's first dogs in 1981, to Bruno, Cisko, and Popeye, who retired in 2014.
The front of the four paneled monument carries an etched police badge and the words, "Remembering those who loyally served the citizens of Anaheim." Another panel is inscribed with "Guardians of the Night," a poem written for police and military dogs. Every name is cut into the granite, with room left for 150 years of service, so every retired Anaheim K-9 can be added in the years to come.
The memorial was funded entirely by private donations. Talk of honoring the department's K-9s had circulated for years, but it was Bruno, who took a bullet protecting his handlers in 2014 and was forced into early retirement, that turned the idea into action. Unveiled in October 2015, the monument now stands where the public passes every day: a quiet reminder of the dogs that put themselves between danger and the city they served.
Reporting in this story draws on coverage by Behind the Badge.
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