LEWISTON — Lewiston police have lost one of their own.

Chico, a veteran police dog with six years on the Lewiston police force, died Monday at a local veterinary hospital after becoming suddenly sick on Christmas Day.

Chico, 8, was days away from retiring. 

“He was slowing down and I said, you know, I just wanted him to come home and be a dog,” said Chico’s partner, Cpl. Kevin Cramp. “He had different plans. He was always meant to be a police dog.”

A large, black German shepherd trained in tracking, searching and obedience, Chico was originally partnered with Lewiston police officer Ray Vega. About five years ago, Vega left the department and Chico was paired with Cramp, a first-time K-9 handler.

Chico lived with Cramp, his wife and two children. Dog and officer quickly became inseparable, both at home and at work. 

“He’s always at my side,” Cramp said. “If I left one room in the house, he’d follow me to the other room. If I went to the bathroom, he’d lay down outside the door. If I went outside, he wanted to come outside. He just never wanted to leave my side — he always wanted to be there. He went to work with me, so I spent more time with him than I do my family.”

At the height of his career, Chico patrolled with Cramp and served as both a drug dog and a search dog. In 2013, he was pictured in a Sun Journal story about the use of drug-sniffing dogs in Lewiston schools. In 2014, he was one of the police dogs who helped track two men who fled from police and swam across the Androscoggin River.  

A fast, powerful dog, he was known among Maine’s K-9 handlers for having one of the hardest bites of any police dog in the state. During one training exercise, Chico took a 200-pound man off his feet and caused him to land flat on his back.

“No one really got excited to wear the (training) sleeve and take a bite from him,” Cramp said.

But while Chico could be fierce, he had the heart of a puppy.

“People always say, ‘Tell me police stories,’ and it’s like, I want to tell you the stories about how he would lay on his back and want his belly rubbed,” Cramp said. “And how my son could ride him around the house like a horse. And how he had a big mouth full of teeth and my daughter could put her hand right in his mouth and he was just as gentle as ever.” 

As one of two K-9s with the department, Chico often served as a furry police ambassador, accompanying Cramp when he spoke to law enforcement classes and visited schoolchildren.

In recent months, Chico was removed from regular police patrol to focus on less strenuous activities, like drug searches. Although he was only 8, he was experiencing joint problems and was starting to slow down.

He was scheduled to retire at the end of this week, leaving Lewiston police to live as a pet with Cramp and his family.

But on Christmas Day, Chico fell ill. Cramp rushed him to an emergency veterinary hospital, where he was diagnosed with gastric torsion — a life-threatening twisting of the stomach that is most common in large, deep-chested dogs like German shepherds. Experts say the exact causes are unknown.

Chico underwent emergency surgery. On Monday morning, he seemed to be doing better, but by Monday night he was dramatically worse. 

“We went back to the recovery room and as soon as I saw him, I knew he wasn’t going to make it,” Cramp said. “You get to know these dogs. You know when they’re happy, when they’re sad, when they’re hurting.”

Chico died Monday night.

“I told my wife, from the day I got him, I dreaded this day. I knew I was going to be spending so much time with him and I knew that we were going to build this bond with each other,” Cramp said, choking up.

News of Chico’s death spread quickly, not only through the Lewiston Police Department but also through the statewide community of K-9 handlers. 

“The response has been very overwhelming at times,” Cramp said. “It’s amazing how much impact he had on people and the work. I give all the credit to him. I didn’t train him — he trained me. I’m going to miss him a lot.”

Cramp will soon return to his job with Lewiston police. Although the department hopes to get another K-9, Cramp won’t be the dog’s handler. He’d decided not to go back to K-9 work.

“It’s going to be a huge adjustment, driving around and not having him bark at people,” Cramp said. “I said today to someone else, I walk around the house and catch a shadow out of the corner of my eye and I think it’s him following me. It’s just my imagination, I know. It’s going to be a different life. But he’ll never be forgotten.”

ltice@sunjournal.com