Sheriff’s Department arson Detective Doug Lerner has been working without his partner – Scooter.
The yellow Lab, known to get excited over the scent of gasoline and other accelerants, has been out on injury leave with a bad foot.
The action pooch had surgery on Jan. 29 at the Suffern Animal Hospital. She’s expected to be off-duty until the end of the month, Detective Lt. William Barbera said.
“She came back and had a cone on her head,” Barbera said, adding the device was meant to prevent Scooter from licking or biting the stitches on her back leg.
Her stitches came out today, he said.
While she’s convalescing, Lerner has been working.
He’s investigating the massive fire that destroyed a Washington Avenue warehouse in Suffern last week – a fire seen for miles. And the warehouse had loads of flammable stuff – from propane tanks to gasoline, all the stuff that puts the bark in an arson dog like Scooter.
Lerner and Scooter have been a team since 2006.
Scooter was found in a Chicago animal shelter after she was abandoned on the streets. The person who rescued the pup and named her Scooter took her to Maine for possible training as an arson dog.
Scooter succeeded Hayley, a black Labrador retriever who became the county’s first arson dog in 2001. Hayley retired with her handler, Detective Joseph Guidice.
While Scooter is a “sworn” law enforcement pooch, she’s not eligible for 2007c – the state program that pays police officer their salary tax free while they are recovering from an on-the-job injury.
