HOUSTON – Being able to spend quality time with his K-9 partner, Jake, is not something Houston police Officer B. Schmidt has ever taken for granted.
“You take him for walks every day. He's with you. He's with me 12 hours a day,” Schmidt said.
But now, it means so much more because less than a month ago, the energetic 9-year-old HPD K-9 unit was wounded while police were in pursuit of two suspected robbers on Feb. 22.
Jake bit the officer's thigh, who managed to get in between him and the pair of suspects.
As he was being bitten, that officer discharged his weapon.
In addition to being shot in the neck, a bullet grazed Jake’s lower lip, nicking a small artery.
After receiving extensive medical care, that included surgery and a course of antibiotics, he’s as good as new.
“Once he came off his medicine, he was already crying to get back to work. He was in the house ready to go, basically bouncing off the walls,” Schmidt said.
Jake was given the green light to go back to work on Monday and hasn’t skipped a beat.