“They are not like pets. I know that there are people out there that are closer to their pets than their own children, but with a K-9 partner the relationship is even closer than that. “
I take offense to that. You cannot judge the closeness of the relationships between my animals amd me. You have no way of knowing the relationships we shared or the depths of our love and loyalty.
I acknowledge that you have a close relationship with your animals, I understand that and I share the same relationship with my dog (a pet, not a working K-9), but until you have shared a relationship with a dog as a police K-9 partner, you could never understand that relationship either.