Flossie posts today

It's Flossie here - guest writer for the day. 

I know how much my human loves her "side hustle" freelance writing - especially when she has the chance to really dig into some of the stories of the people she's gotten to interview. She's talked my floppy ears off about this one.

For the April article in Columbia Metropolitan Magazine about local k-9 units, she got to sit down with Sgt. Cynthia Waggoner of the Columbia PD. Cynthia spent almost two hours with my human in Drip on a cold rainy day talking about what she does, why she does it and how she does it.

Cynthia talked with such passion about the dogs, their training and their lifestyles. But what really struck my human the most was the connection between the human and K-9 officers. My human and I have a great connection, but this sounded different. Cynthia talked about how they were almost in each others' heads, knowing each other thoughts and anticipating each others' next moves.

One story Cynthia told my human that I particularly loved didn't make it into the article. As a woman of relatively small stature (kind of like my human), Cynthia still has to meet the same standards of physical police work as her larger counterparts. She talked about what it felt like to be zipped up inside the "apprehension suit" (built for a much larger man) and wait for the dog to attack. My human said it sounded like what it would feel like to be a Weeble in a Michelin Man suit. I just couldn't get that image out of my head.

My favorite quote of the interview was Cynthia's response to my human's question about "so what can't these dogs do?" Just about anything but host their own podcast," she said. But somehow I think there's got to be a way for them to do that too.

Cynthia's  retired black lab, Jazz, is already on her way to social media fame with the Instagram account that recounts their travels and adventures. It's a must-follow for anyone who loves a dog. Check her out @k9_jazz.

I'm aspiring to match Jazz's 209 followers. You can follow me @the_diviine_miss_flossie.

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