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She saved many lives. She sniffed out scores of bad guys. But this week her best friend and partner, Deputy Allen Russell, had to say goodbye.

Dasha, a K-9 for the Blount County Sheriff’s Office, died Monday after many months of fighting cancer. The beloved bloodhound will be sorely missed by her family, law enforcement and the community.

In Dasha’s first appearance in The Daily Times in 2002, the late reporter Anna C. Irwin quoted Russell as saying Dasha was “a nose with a dog attached.” Since then, Dasha’s nose has proven to be one of the best resources that Blount and surrounding counties have ever seen.

Dasha has sniffed out 68 people in her seven-year career. She has assisted other agencies 85 times in Alcoa, Townsend, Loudon County, Sweetwater, Monroe County and Sevier County — just to name a few. She has received letters of appreciation from Overton County, Campbell County, Loudon County, the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

Russell and Dasha were “Employee of the Month” at the sheriff’s office in 2003, 2004 and 2007. In 2007, the pair won the BCSO Life Saving Award and the Red Cross Law Enforcement Hero of the Year Award.

The lifesaving and hero awards recognized Russell and Dasha for finding an elderly woman who is legally blind after she wandered from her home in August 2006. Dasha found the woman tangled and hanging in barbed wire in the woods.

Russell recalled one of his favorite tracks with Dasha was after an armed robbery of a gas station. He said the suspects had crashed their vehicle and Russell tried to stand by and wait for backup, but Dasha wasn’t having it.

“She just drug me and took me to the guys who were hiding in a car,” Russell said.
Dasha assisted in apprehending murderers, found people who had been missing for days and was also a great tool in finding evidence while sniffing out a trail.

“She’s done a lot of good things,” Russell said. “We’ve put some bad guys in jail and we’ve brought a lot of people home.”

Bought as pet

She was born on Christmas Day 2001, and Russell bought Dasha to be a pet and mate for a male bloodhound. After only having her a few weeks, Russell realized Dasha had an amazing talent at tracking. He began taking her to training with the Blount County K-9 Association, and at 7 weeks old, she performed her first track.

The K-9 association was just “experimenting” with Dasha’s skills at that time, but her first track quickly made her a part of the team when she found a missing 14-year-old girl in Overton County. Russell said it was decided that Dasha could start accompanying him to work as a sheriff’s K-9.

“Once they said that — she never left the car,” Russell said.

He leased Dasha to the Blount County Sheriff’s Office for a penny a year, and Dasha went to work with Russell every shift, until she got sick.

In September, Russell said Dasha was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer. Her first round of chemotherapy was successful for a while, but the cancer returned in April. Dasha tried another dose of a different type of chemotherapy, but Russell said this dose did not help. She had her good days, but took a turn for the worse in the recent weeks.

“We just couldn’t let her suffer,” Russell said.

Gentle, loving spirit

Russell said Dasha will be remembered for her many great accomplishments in law
enforcement, but will mostly be remembered for her gentle and loving spirit.

“She just had such a loving personality,” he said.

Not only did Dasha steal the hearts of adults and children she met at demonstrations, but she even won over some of the criminals she apprehended. Russell said he could remember apprehending one criminal who called Dasha a “good girl” as she jumped on him, proud of her catch.

Although Dasha is no longer with the Russell family and the family misses her dearly, Russell said he and his wife, Diane, will be kept busy with their new bloodhound pup — Tess. The puppy will be trained as a police K-9 and will serve as the next bloodhound for the sheriff’s office. Just like Dasha, Russell thinks Tess will also be “a blessing.”