Former fire dog free of cancer

Friday, Nov. 16, 2001 | 9:52 a.m.

Josie, the retired arson-sniffing dog for the Clark County Fire Department, is cancer-free.

Surgery performed Thursday on the 11-year-old yellow Labrador retriever found that five large tumors in her torso -- including one that impeded her windpipe -- and three small tumors around her nose were non-cancerous.

The benign tumors were removed during a one-hour operation, said CCFD spokesman Steve La-Sky, noting that the tumors ranged from marble-sized to golf ball-sized. Josie was resting comfortably Thursday and could be released from veterinary care as early as Saturday, he said.

"Many of the signs, including what she had done for so long, pointed to the potential for cancer, but the news was good, and there was no cancer," La-Sky said, noting that studies have found that firefighters run a higher risk of getting cancer because of their exposure to smoke and carcinogens.

Josie, who was donated to the Clark County Fire Department by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as a puppy, spent the bulk of her life sniffing gasoline, kerosene, paint thinners and other flammable liquids and accelerants.

Her training was such that she only got fed if she were able to identify the chemicals. She is owned by CCFD fire investigator Clifford Mitchell.

Josie retired Feb. 9 and was given a going-away party by the department in August. Retirement, however, meant that the department could not pay the minimum $1,300 for the surgery, which was donated.

"We got more than 200 calls from people wanting to donate -- calls from as far away as Texas and San Francisco," La-Sky said, noting that to date 30 envelopes containing donations have been received, but the total of the gifts has not yet been tallied.

Josie, born March 21, 1990, began her service Nov. 11, 1991, just five years after fire-sniffing dogs were first used in Connecticut.

During her career the medium-sized Lab responded to about 250 fires, 90 percent of which were determined to be arson. Her work was credited with leading to 15 arrests and 13 convictions.