Franklin Police K-9 dog ‘Kyra’ awarded LVMA ‘Pet of Year’

A Franklin K-9 police dog was named “Pet of the Year” for 2014 by the Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association.
Last October, the Franklin Police Department said goodbye to their 10-year-old K-9 family member, officer “Kyra.”
Kyra had been a member of the Franklin Police Department since April 2006. Officer Kyra was a female Belgian Malinois trained to give odor response and indication when narcotics were located. Kyra was responsible for over 200 arrests, removing large amounts of marijuana and cocaine off the streets in St Mary Parish.
Kyra also spent much time in St. Mary Parish schools assisting combating drug problems in the school system. She loved children and when not serving her community she would visit the kindergarten through sixth grade classes demonstrating how she made her finds. In return for her demonstrations Kyra was the recipient of many hugs from all of her young fans.
Kyra lived with her partner, Sgt. Larry Bolden, his wife and their three children. She would lie on the sofa and watch cartoons with the kids. Kyra and her partner worked nights, and when Sgt. Bolden slept, Kyra slept in the same bed right beside her partner.
Most of Kyra’s arrests were made after she successfully survived thyroid cancer (carcinoma) surgery and treatments in December 2011. After recovery, Kyra returned to the streets continuing to make “hits and finds” throughout the parish until she was diagnosed with an abdominal tumor and was laid to rest on Oct. 8, 2014.
Kyra was previously partnered with Lt. Billy May, but after his second call for deployment to Afghanistan, Franklin Police Chief Sabria McGuire teamed her up with Sgt. Bolden.
The Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association commended the Franklin Police Department and Chief McGuire for recognizing the importance and necessity of obtaining officer Kyra for drug detection work to protect and serve the citizens and school children in St Mary Parish.