Ian the Warrior in honor of Ian Alexander Novacek

At the 2017 Hometown Foundation event, Dream Ride, K-9 Crime Stoppers were so very fortunate to meet a new friend. His name was Ian Alexander Novacek and he loved watching the K-9’s in action and dreamed of being a K-9 Handler. He especially loved K-9 Crime Stopper Ben (renamed Chico) that was visiting from his new home on duty in the Rio Rancho, New Mexico Police Department. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship with Ian and his family: Heather, Michael, & Grace. All it took was to see Ian’s infectious smile when watching the K-9’s in action, listen to his quick wit and hilarious sense of humor, and we knew we had just met our #1 fan! In 2018 we were reunited with Ian and invited him to participate in our K-9 demonstration, where he lived his dream to be a K9 handler for a day. He deployed East Hartford’s K9 Capo to subdue the bad guy (aka a decoy)! It was a memorable moment and one that we will cherish forever. Sadly Ian passed away shortly thereafter and we were forever changed.

Of course, our new puppy just had to be named in honor of the strong minded, incredibly loving, silly, courageous and smart Ian Alexander (the Warrior) Novacek. We cannot express how honored we are to have become a part of Ian’s chosen family. And in turn we are humbled to have been recipients of special fundraisers in honor of Ian. Heather, Ian’s amazingly generous and powerful mother, and her network of donors are not only helping to provide us with a much-needed fence, but they have given us so much more in the way of support and love for K9CS, and most especially Heather’s other son, K-9 Ian.  We will always proudly work to support all service dogs and their families and we only hope we can honor the amazing young man that Ian was, and share his determined, loving, and fighting spirit with all of you.

We thank Christian Losiewski, Doug Salvio & Chelsea Corneliuson for the donation of Ian to our Puppies to Police Dogs Program.