Houston Police Dog "T-Rex" is Getting Life-Saving Surgery

T-Rex
Photo credit T-Rex Twitter

HOUSTON (KRLD) - A Houston K-9 police dog named T-Rex is getting a lot of attention. He's helped catch more than 100 crime suspects and now he's about to get another chance at life.

T-Rex has bone cancer and veterinarians at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital are going to do some life-saving surgery on him.

His handler is Houston Officer Paul Foster and he talked about T-Rex's last night on duty with KRLD Wednesday.

Making some progress with getting him better! Today his doctors were able to close up his wound and put a drain tube in place. We are that much closer to putting this injury behind us!We want to thank the ladies at "Covering the Blue" for T-Rex's new favorite blanket. ---- pic.twitter.com/1cYCJcVrAc

— K9 T-Rex (@K9TRex) January 9, 2019

"I was out chasing a burglary suspect. T-Rex located him about a block away in a backyard. The guy took off running. T-Rex got snagged on a fence. It was just a freak accident. It tore his stomach open. Foster says that didn't stop T-Rex. He was tracking the suspect through another back yard. We rushed him to the vet. They were able to stitch him up."

But, Foster saw that T-Rex was moving slower and took him to a veterinarian in Houston. They did some x-rays and found a spot on T-Rex's knee that didn't look right. It looked like cancer.

Foster says, "They referred me to Texas A&M. They did a bone biopsy and found out it was bone cancer. It was a slower forming cancer. So, it wasn't the worst type you could have. He's such an active dog. He's a Belgian Malinois. It's hard to keep him from running around. I'm sure with the amputation of his leg it won't stop him."

Foster says he's now gotten even closer to his friend T-Rex after everything they've been through together.

"I know exactly what he's thinking before he does it. He knows me. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would have had this close of a relationship with an animal that I do now. They really take care of us and they're like family. He's like a son to me."