Tom and Becca Ahrensfeld come from families with a long history in law enforcement and firefighting. So wherever the couple has lived, they make a point to support the local police and fire departments. \u201cIf you\u2019re wearing a badge and helping people out,\u201d Tom states, \u201cwe\u2019ll help you out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ahrensfelds, who split time between their homes in Cape Cod and Key West, recently showed their support for the Key West Police Department with an unusual offering: a handsome German Shepherd named Jigsaw. Tom had heard that the department needed to replace another dog who was ready to retire from his loyal service in a K9 unit.<\/p>\n
The highly specialized training of a K9 unit \u2013 dog and human partner \u2013 can cost up to $35,000. The dog alone comes with a price tag of $15,000. Pups are born and raised in Germany or Austria, then shipped to the United States where they undergo six months of intensive training, conducted in German. Upon successful completion of this rigorous course, the dogs meet their working partner who moves to the K9 site. For the next four to six weeks, the officer and dog will continue the intensive training (the officer must learn commands in German) and bond as a certified team. From the moment they meet, a K9 unit lives together and becomes inseparable, until the dog retires or is tragically injured in the line of duty.<\/p>\n
The Ahrensfelds chose the name Jigsaw because of the Key West Police Department\u2019s deep involvement in the Autism Society of the Keys, whose logo is a blue puzzle piece. Jigsaw is now two years old, and Officer Tommy Anglin could not be more grateful for his beautiful, brilliant, and faithful K9 partner. Tom and Becca share that deep love for animals: their Cape Cod farm is a peaceable kingdom that includes retired horses, goats, donkeys, laying hens, and ducks. And of course, four dogs.<\/p>\n
by Maria Buteux Reade<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tom and Becca Ahrensfeld come from families with a long history in law enforcement and firefighting. So wherever the couple has lived, they make a point to support the local police and fire departments. \u201cIf you\u2019re wearing a badge and helping people out,\u201d Tom states, \u201cwe\u2019ll help you out.\u201d The Ahrensfelds, who split time between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-november-2021"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"PROVIDING THE GIFT OF MAN'S BEST FRIEND","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4323"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4345,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions\/4345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}