04/06/2025
The other month someone asked Steph if the police car they had just seen outside the clinic was there to arrest her for ‘criminally bad parking’ 🚓… we can confirm this is not the case (so she says) 👀😅
What we can say for certain though is that the occupant of the car, RPD Gru, has an important message to share!
We’ve been supporting Gru in the clinic for over a year alongside the fantastic teams Nupsala, The Renew Clinic, and Loyalwill Canine Hydrotherapy Centre 🩺. Gru served 3 years in the Northamptonshire Police Dog Unit as a general purpose police dog before sadly being retired due to injury.
Hearing stories about how Gru helped detain countless criminals in the line of duty while protecting his handler and the general public puts into perspective how amazing our police dog section is 🦴. Although Gru has helped put many criminals behind bars over the years, he is the world's biggest softy 🧸 and can usually be found sitting on Steph’s lap for a pre-treatment cuddle 🐶
Hero paws - Life AFTER service and the NRFSA are two fantastic charities that work hard to support service dogs in their retirement 🐕🦺. A lot of people don’t know this, but when service dogs retire, all responsibility for their care falls on their handler or new owner — and it’s often very difficult or even impossible to find insurance to cover them.
Gru’s handler and some other members of Northamptonshire Police Service are setting out to accomplish the Three Peaks Challenge ⛰️ in full kit, in under 24 hours. That’s roughly 23 miles, 70,000 steps, and 10,000 feet of elevation— in under a day! 😮🥾⏱️
This post is not only to let you know how much we all love RPD Gru, but also to raise awareness about what Hero Paws and NRFSA are doing 🫶🐾. We’re just about to make our donation to support the handler’s Three Peaks Challenge, but if anyone is interested in donating anything to their cause to help with the treatment of retired service animals in need, please check out the link below: 👇
🔗 https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/retiredpolicedogs
