Sheriff's deputies pay tribute after death of K-9 Windy

Editor's note: The following news release was written by Sheriff's Deputy Robyn Flores, one of the officers who responds to Menifee 24/7 media requests. This article about the death of K-9 Windy shows the strong feelings deputies have for their K-9 comrades, as seen in this photo with Deputy Ochoa.

It is with a heavy heart that we announce that K-9 Windy has lost her battle with her illness and passed away today.

Thanks to an overwhelming amount of support from our community, Windy was able to receive the top-notch medical care that she deserved. Windy was well cared for by Doctor Prior and her amazing team at California Veterinarian Specialists in Murrieta. Despite their best efforts, Windy’s illness overcame her medication and her symptoms returned stronger than ever.

K-9 Windy, for those who don’t know, was a human-tracking bloodhound with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department who has only been retired for a couple of weeks due to complications that arose from her illness. Windy served this community for five years, in which she trailed countless miles throughout Riverside County in search of missing persons, lost hikers, and fleeing felons.

K-9 Windy was great at her job, and with 50 documented finds and numerous investigative leads located, she had developed a reputation throughout the Inland Empire and surrounding law enforcement agencies as an excellent working dog for locating those who are missing and those who are hiding. Her career, like her personality, was nothing short of stellar.

A service dog for a law enforcement agency is, at the end of the day, a tool that the department retains for keeping officers safe. It is easy to forget sometimes that the service dog and handler spend all of their time at work and at home together. This creates a very strong bond between canine handler and dog that cannot be put into words easily.

Every stressful situation her handler entered, Windy went into first. She faced the same dangers her handler did, before he did, to ultimately keep her handler and his partners safe. She spent more time with her handler than her handler spent with his family. This bond and understanding of the way Windy thinks and feels makes the loss of a service dog so much more difficult for her handler.

Once again, not enough can be said for how thankful we feel towards our community and the staff of C.V.S. The outpouring of support has been overwhelming, and it was a comfort to our K-9 team and Windy’s handler during this difficult time.

Goodbye, Windy. We already miss you, and we will take the watch from here.