Bunny provides comfort to officers, others
It was one of the darkest chapters of recent Healdsburg history. On the night of Nov. 20 a man arrived at the Healdsburg police station on Center Street, screaming for help and carrying the lifeless body of a child. It would turn out that Gerardo Mendoza Ordaz had drowned his own daughter in the baptismal pool of a nearby church, and over the next two days the terrible incident would take a toll on the officers and staff charged with investigating the case.
Enter four tiny bundles of joy. Officer Katie Close breeds Rex show rabbits, and she had a set of two-week-old babies. When she came in for her shift the next day, and she saw the toll on her fellow officers, some of whom had been working for 30 hours already, she thought of the babies she had at home.
“I just felt helpless,” she said. “I’m the peer support coordinator at the department and I have specialized training in post traumatic stress disorder and critical incidents. I wondered if it would brighten people up if I brought these bunnies in. I just thought, ‘How can I make people smile?’ Maybe something tiny and cuddly and adorable would help.”
Rex rabbits are known for their extremely soft, plush coats and come in several colors. Close has been breeding them for about three years. She brought in three females (does) and one male (buck) and the effect was immediate.
“The timing seemed to work out really well,” she said. “It did change things around here. That case shook the whole department and we needed something new and cute and a distraction. It helped people. The dispatchers that are here when I’m not here are bummed because they don’t get to be with them.”
Dispatcher Linda Haviland immediately took to the little bunny. “She was the dispatcher the night of the incident,” said Close. “She named him Norman, after Norman Reedus of the Walking Dead. I don’t like that show, but she’s a freak for it.”
Even Chief Kevin Burke got in on the action. He fell for a tiny gray doe, so small at first that she fit in the palm of his hand. He named her Beatrice.
The final two made their rounds of the station, picking up the names Coco and Caboose.
As time progressed and the bunnies grew, Norman took over the lead role as official therapy bunny. When Close is working her shift, she brings him and a cage along and he gets set up in the dispatch room with Haviland.
“Bunnies grow and mature very fast. When I brought the litter in they were two weeks old and some people were a little freaked out about them being away from their mom,” she said. “But, rabbits only feed their babies twice a day and they don’t get stressed when the babies get taken out of the nest, so it wasn’t a problem to bring them here. Bunnies are pretty much nocturnal so he just lazes around during the day and plays at night.
“He’s quiet and clean — he’s litter box trained and he just hangs out. People pass his cage, talk to him and feed him broccoli and spinach. He’s just a low maintenance guy,” she finished.
He’s even fully official. “He has the same ID tag all of us do, with his picture and his title of therapy officer,” Close said.
Close has been with the Healdsburg Police Department for nine years, but animals have always been a big part of her life. She started in law enforcement as an animal control officer, and has worked as a K-9 officer. She has also trained search and rescue dogs. She volunteers her time with her PTSD expertise, though said she had never before worked with a therapy animal, but, “I had this wild idea about a rabbit, and it worked out.”
Haviland has decided to make Norman a permanent part of her family, and starting next week he’ll start gong home with her at the end of shift. He will continue his therapy duties, though his new living arrangement may open up a second position for therapy officer at the department.
“The chief recently asked why Beatrice hadn’t been in for a while,” Close said with a laugh. “So maybe she’ll fill in for Norman on the days he’s not here.”
Norman is also serving as a valuable part of their community outreach program. “He was here during our ‘Adopt-a-Cop’ program,” Close said. “He met all the kids. And at least 75 percent of the thank you cards the kids wrote up and sent us talked about Norman. I don’t know of any other police station with an official rabbit.”
Norman and Beatrice may soon have company. Trigger the therapy dog is finishing up his certification and will soon join them on the job. Look for Trigger’s story in a future issue of the Tribune.
