The Price City Police has a new member they’ve added to the department and his name is PeeDee. Price City Police Officer Sgt. Shawn Sackett and Sgt. Kelly Maynes stopped by Castle Country Radio to introduce PeeDee to listeners.

In February, Sgt. Sackett and another officer were called out to an individual who found a puppy on the side of the road. “It kind of tugged at my heart strings a little bit. He said he was driving on Highway 6, happened to notice a box on the side of the road, and as he went by noticed a head pop out of the box. So he went back and doubled back, and when he got to the box, he found PeeDee inside the box and that’s how we found him,” explained Sgt. Sackett. Of course, the Police Department did what they could to find PeeDee’s owners but have had no success.

In the meantime, PeeDee has been settling in well and is getting to know the officers at the department. “He pulled on some heart strings pretty early on, especially with his story. Some officers, including our Chief, we held on to him, I think he, kind of won him over, so the Chief said no we’re going to, no body else wants him, then we’re going to take him on,” said Sgt. Sackett. Each morning you can find PeeDee making the rounds to the offices to see who is all on duty and to make sure all is well within the department.

PeeDee will not be a K-9 Officer but will be a support animal. “What he’s going to be is a Critical Incident Response Dog for us for major situations, critical incidents. He’s going to be there to kind of be that emotional support for people who are struggling with things. He can climb up on someone, lick their face, he can hang out with them. Just kind of that emotional support that people may need when they’re going through something traumatic,” said Sgt. Maynes. PeeDee is already making the rounds to area schools so the kids can get to know him.

Its takes money to train a Critical Incident Response animal and right now PeeDee is going through puppy training to learn basic commands. “Training for an animal like this and canine like this can be quite pricey. The city and the police department have budgeted a little bit to help with that. We’ve also received a lot of support from the community, with different donations that have come in for PeeDee. You know that is something that we hope continues because he is going to be a very important part of our department and for our law enforcement community in our area,” said Sgt. Maynes. If you would like to make a monetary donation towards PeeDee’s training you can do so by stopping by the Price City Police Department.