A dog who survived a roadside bomb attack in Iraq while serving Special Forces soldiers then worked four more years for Colorado Springs police has died. A Belgian Malinois, Rudy succumbed to cancer.
Colorado Springs police announced the death Saturday.
Rudy completed 440 hours on police patrols and field training assignments. The police acquired him in 2010 and paired him with Officer Mike Juhl.
Previously, Rudy served three tours of military duty in Iraq, assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group, a military unit based at Fort Carson, south of Colorado Springs.
The U.S. military used Belgian Malinois, German shepherds and Labradors on canine tactical teams that detected explosives such as TNT and C4 and bomb-making materials such as detonation cords — saving lives.
In 2007 in Iraq, a homemade bomb in Baghdad exploded, wounding Rudy. And other canines were coming home with symptoms some veterinarians liken to the “post-traumatic stress disorder” affecting soldiers.
But Rudy endured and embarked on police work.
The police retired him in 2014.
This year, he was living with Juhl, playing ball and eating Milk-Bones, as an aggressive cancer spread.
