RETIRED POLICE DOG JABBA

Former police dog handler Jenny Preston knew that when she stepped down from Kent Police in April 2019 that her dogs would be joining her in their retirement. 

Jenny spent 30 years working for the police, 18 as a dog handler. Eight-year-old German shepherd Jabba – her general purpose and firearms support dog – and nine-year-old cocker spaniel sniffer dog Ronnie both retired with her. Her third dog, cocker spaniel JJ, had retired a year earlier.

But having left the force, Jenny was now responsible for all three dog’s costs, including any veterinary costs as a result of their tough lives. She wasn’t sure how she’d cover the costs if anything serious ever happened, which, unfortunately, it did.

Jabba, who died in January 2021 at the age of 10, was a successful and ‘reliable’ working dog. Jenny said: “We worked together for six years and he was my partner. We didn’t have any exciting stories of heroism or anything, but we were always reliably there. We would do school talks together and when we turned up to respond to jobs he had such a big bark that people would immediately give up and come out because they were frightened of him!”

Although fit and health when he retired, Jabba started losing weight in December 2020 and vets thought he had hyperparathyroidism. He was booked in for an operation after Christmas but vets found he was suffering from a huge tumour on his heart and he was put to sleep. The Thin Blue Paw Foundation covered the £900 bill for his treatment.

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