Fire station dog with cancer will stay on job as long as he can, Indiana officials say

Bosco, a fire department dog in Indiana, was just diagnosed with an aggressive, deadly type of cancer, officials say.

That doesn’t mean he will quit going to work.

Portage Fire Department Lt. Jeremy Himan, who is Bosco’s partner on the K-9 investigation team, shared the dire diagnosis Tuesday afternoon in a Facebook post. Bosco has hemangiosarcoma, a cancer in the blood vessels that will spread to his lungs, heart and brain. A veterinarian predicted that Bosco will live about one to three months.

“The outcome is not good,” Himan wrote. “It’s a very aggressive type of cancer.”

The fire department first told its followers that Bosco was having medical problems in late October. At the time, firefighters hoped for good news.

However, a biopsy revealed the cancer.

Now the veterinarian is recommending that Bosco keep working to maintain purpose and normalcy for the dog while he’s still relatively healthy, Himan wrote.

“Anyone that knows Bosco knows he’s a working dog through and through,” Himan wrote. “His drive is remarkable and he wouldn’t rather do anything else.”

Bosco has helped investigate fires that include cases of arson and even murder.

In 2012, Bosco helped sniff out the toilet bowl cleaner a murder suspect used to start a fire to a house where he’d just stabbed a man, The Times of Northwest Indiana and fire officials reported.

The next year, Bosco tracked down accelerants used to start a house fire that killed a fellow canine, the newspaper reported.

While Bosco is “acting completely normal” right now, Himan said he will re-evaluate whether to keep his partner working if the dog’s condition changes.

“Thank you to everyone that has reached out and supported us along the way,” Himan wrote.

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This story was originally published November 5, 2019 at 5:24 PM with the headline "Fire station dog with cancer will stay on job as long as he can, Indiana officials say."