The Clay County Sheriff’s Office in Spencer, Iowa, issued the following press release this week after its police dog, Bailey, died.

I’m not sure what we’ll do for the regular edition of the Journal, but felt blog readers might enjoy this eloquent good-bye.

SPENCER, Iowa — With deepest regrets the Clay County Sheriff’s Office announces on Aug. 9, canine officer Bailey was euthanized following a long illness. Bailey was 14 years old at the time of his death.

Bailey was a purebred yellow Labrador retriever and served the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and citizens of Clay and surrounding counties with distinction for nine years beginning in 1996. 

Bailey was Clay County’s first canine officer and initially was certified as a narcotics detection expert before earning certification as the counties first dual purpose police dog, specializing in criminal apprehension, tracking, handler protection and article searches.

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They say a person should learn something new every day.

Today, I learned that if you want to go for a walk and think you might be drunk or even just a little bit buzzed, hire a babysitter and leave the kids at home.

According to police, two Sioux City women were arrested Sunday morning for allegedly pushing children in strollers while (the women were) intoxicated.

Although drunken stroller pushing is unsafe and can only lead to bad things, I’d never heard of anyone getting arrested for this reason. 

Then again, I didn’t know you could get arrested for flipping a cop the bird until a Spencer woman got cuffed earlier this year. Don’t know about you, but it made me think twice before throwing a fit the next time somebody pulled out in front of me.

Here’s the stroller story that ran in Tuesday’s Sioux City Journal.

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