An RCMP member who started his career in Thompson is retiring after seven years with the force and plans to spend his retirement swimming, lying on the couch, eating bacon and playing fetch.
Charlie is a police service dog who finished training in December 2011 and was posted to Thompson with his handler Cpl. Jason Muzzerall. He was Muzzerall’s first service dog and the two have worked together since Charlie was seven weeks old. Charlie will continue to live with Muzzerall’s family after retiring.
Charlie and Muzzerall have been posted in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador since December 2015 but Muzzerall recalls his first assignment with his four-legged companion.
"It was our first call, first track and first catch,” Muzzerall said in a press release. “We had to travel behind a skidoo in a toboggan to a cabin, track the suspect in the snow for about 2.5 kilometres before locating him hiding in the woods. After we hiked back with the suspect in custody we rode back in the sled. I was laying down and Charlie was laying on top of me. I remember thinking this was awesome as the northern lights blazed across the sky as we rode in the sled back to our truck. That was my very first night with Charlie in Thompson and it was a sign of things to come."
A third-generation purebred German Shepherd from the RCMP breeding program, Charlie was trained to track and search people nd to help find drugs, firearms and other evidence in police investigations. Among his many successful searches in Thompson was one in which he uncovered cocaine hidden behind the interior moulding panels of a car.
Charlie’s upcoming retirement will be marked with a lunch celebration in Happy Valley-Goose Bay today, where the German Shepherd will receive a a special token of appreciation from detachment Insp. Jim Elliot.
