You were the task force’s K9 handler, managing dogs for anything from Search and Rescue to attack dogs. You were good at your job, and you loved your dogs.

little did you know, someone else also loved your dogs. More than you know.

You always knew the Lieutenant had a special affinity for the dogs, but so did most people on the team.

One night you woke repeatedly in the awful morning hours to movement alerts from your phone, connected to the security cameras in the kennels. Figuring the dogs were just restless, you waited for the alerts to settle down. Except they never did.

So you reluctantly shuffled through the empty halls of the base to go check on your dogs. Opening the door to the darkened hallway of kennels, you were shocked to see a figure in the darkness, huddled over in front of one of the glass kennels doors. It took your still half-asleep mind a moment to place the figure as your distinguished lieutenant, sat in front of a kennel door and staring back at you like a child who just got caught stealing cookies.