Memorial service held for Franklin County K9

ROCKY MOUNT, Va. (WDBJ) - A memorial service was held Wednesday for a Franklin County Sheriff’s Office K9 that died in August.

Sasha, a five-year-old German Shepherd, “passed away from an unexpected medical condition while being boarded at a local veterinarian’s office,” according to the sheriff’s office.

Sasha began serving Franklin County in 2018 after being donated to the Office of the Sheriff by Erich Grasso (Grasso Dog Training and Shepherds in Shelton, Connecticut) through a grant with K9s United out of Jacksonville, Florida.

Sasha’s father was a patrol dog with the New York Police Department and her sister was a bomb detection dog with the NBA.

She specialized in narcotics detection and tracking, according to the sheriff’s office, and assisted with “numerous arrests and thousands of dollars’ worth of narcotics being seized from our community. She successfully tracked and located many critically missing persons, as well as fleeing criminals.”

The sheriff’s office wrote, “Sasha may have been smaller than other working dogs, but she was mighty in her impact. The unexpected loss of Sasha hurts this Office of the Sheriff family. Please keep her handlers, Deputy Patterson and Deputy Alejandro, as well as her human mama, Audrey, and her human sisters, Teagan and Dani, in your thoughts and prayers as they navigate through this difficult time.”

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