02/01/2026
“Yesterday our family lost our protector. I spent about 30 minutes typing, deleting and retyping that first sentence because it’s really hard to describe what Bronn was for us and what he did for my family.
I was selected to become a K-9 handler in the spring of 2014 and picked up Bronn in August. According to his passport from the Czech Republic Bronn was born on January 1st 2013, his given name was “Fugi” but I quickly gave him a name fitting a warrior and protector “Bronn”. We entered the CT State Police 170th Patrol K-9 School in September and hit the road in December of 2014 with Bronn certified in tracking, suspect apprehension, building search and evidence recovery. We later attended the 186th Narcotics Detection School in 2017 where Bronn was cross-trained to find dangerous drugs. I wish i had taken the two important things that trooper Jimmy O’Donnell taught us in patrol school more seriously early on in my K-9 career “Sh*t rolls down leash” and “The dumb end of the leash is at the top”.
Bronn was fierce, chaotic, loyal while some how having an “off switch” where I could take him into a school for kids to pet him or trust him with my then toddlers as they poked his eyes, pulled his ears and tail while he laid quiet and calm and took it. At home Bronn would lay on his bed patiently until any movement whatsoever, go up to the bathroom, Bronn was coming, grab a drink he was with you. I know he was probably hoping to be fed or let outside, but part of me thinks he was just being a shadow to his family, making sure he was there. Ill miss a lot about Bronn, but I know he passed away surrounded with love, with Larissa and I by his side in a room full of K-9 handlers with a ball in his mouth. Rest easy bud.” - Officer Conor Hogan
