Sergeant Allan McRae with Five-O who is missing her master. Photo / Herald on Sunday
Watching Five-O the drug dog leap, soft brown eyes glued to a well-gnawed toy, you would never guess the German Shepherd was feared dead in a police van as Napier's gun siege played out metres away.
The five-year-old specialist narcotics hunter was partnered with Senior Constable Grant Diver, one of
three officers shot at by Jan Molenaar on Chaucer Rd.
Diver, who managed to crawl to a neighbouring property to be rescued by members of the Armed Offenders Squad, is in a serious but stable condition at Hawke's Bay Hospital.
Police feared Five-O, or Fi for short, had been wounded or killed.
They retrieved her alive and well at 10.30pm on Friday after 36 hours in the back of a police van at the back of Molenaar's property.
Sergeant Allan McRae, who heads the Eastern District Policing Dog Section, said Diver had asked after Fi and was relieved to hear she was safe.
Fi was "a little confused" by her master's disappearance having been by his side since the age of six months.
One of seven dogs in the Napier dog section, but the only narcotics specialist, McRae described Fi as "a highly expensive piece of equipment" well-trained in searching people, objects and mail.
He said she returned a near perfect bill of health from her vet check, suffering only from moderate dehydration.
McRae did not know how long Fi could have survived without food or water and confirmed police carried out a "focused operation" to get her out. He agreed police dogs led a dangerous life.
"It's just the job ... that's the easiest way of putting it," he said with a shrug. But yesterday, the only operation Fi had in mind was wrestling that toy out of McRae's hand - slobber and all.
