Sonia Barr already knew she wanted Molly to come live at her home. 

The eventual future of the dog partner to her son, Drew Barr, a K-9 officer with the Cayce Police Department, had already been a topic of conversation.

“I had already asked Drew, ‘Whenever they retire Molly, could I get Molly to take her home, let her be our pet?’” Sonia told the Chronicle. 

Tragedy struck Molly and the Barr family on April 24 when Drew Barr was shot and killed while responding to a domestic dispute. But Molly will still go home to the Barr family.

After master trainers evaluated the black Labrador and determined that the best course for the dog’s well-being was for her to retire from police work and become a full-time pet, she went home June 3 with Sonia Barr and Drew’s sister, Andrea Kelly.

“It's just like Drew is going to be with us,” his mother said.

Hugs were prevalent among Officer Barr’s family and members of the Cayce government and police department during the meetup in the city’s council chambers to hand Molly off. The dog ran happily from person to person, rolling around and smiling wide. 

“I think we're all excited about it,” Cayce Police Chief Chris Cowan said of Molly’s retirement plan. “Because we know that we're gonna stay connected with the Barr family. They're part of us. We're part of them. So Molly is going to be with our family.”

Key in the decision to retire Molly was the trauma she endured the day Officer Barr was killed. She was on scene with him during the incident, Cowan explained.

“She couldn't get to her dad, she could not get out of the car, she couldn't help him, and she witnessed everything,” he said. “And that is traumatic for a dog. 

“People can say that, ‘Dogs don't this, dogs don't that’ — dogs know what goes on with their handlers, dogs know what goes on with their owners.”

Cowan emphasized the time K-9 officers spend with their dogs.

“I don't think people know the amount of time or energy that the handlers put into their dog,” the chief said.

“It's not just when they're working a 12-hour shift. They're constantly caring for that dog. The dog goes home with them. The dog is a part of their family. But the dog is constantly being trained, constantly being monitored, constantly being cared for, nurtured.”

Besides maintaining their readiness for police work, the K-9 officers handle cleaning and bathing, take their animals to the vet, and sometimes let them bound into bed like any other dog.

According to the Cayce Police website, Barr and Molly were first partnered up in 2019. Now 5 and a half years old, she joined the K-9 Unit in 2018 and was initially paired with a different partner. 

K-9 Officer Brandon Poole said that during canine certification week, about three weeks before Barr’s death, Drew said he was making “some real good strides with him and Molly, they were really bonding, really doing well in all their training.”

Barr’s mother had a similar assessment of the pair’s connection.

“Molly was like his child,” she said. “He loved her, but when it came to work, Molly had to be able to do her job. He treated her like a baby at home, but then when it was work time, she knew she had to do what she was supposed to do.”

Poole compared the change between a police dog at home and at work to flipping a light switch and emphasized the consistent training it takes to maintain that balance.

“When mine gets out of the car, she knows that's home,” he said. “That's where we have fun. That's where she gets to be lazy and all that. But when she gets in that car, she knows that it's time to go to work.”

Cowan said Molly was a narcotics and tracking dog. His department also has dogs who do jobs such as criminal apprehension and locating missing children.

The chief said that after conversations with Barr and other K-9 officers, he and the department are working to expand the jobs they have dogs to do — he wants to eventually have explosive ordnance disposal and detection dogs as well as therapy dogs — as well as the resources and training available to the K-9 Unit.

Steel Paws, a titular beer and fundraising effort launched by Cayce’s Steel Hands Brewing in April to provide support for “canine initiatives focused on public safety,” has been a big help in this regard, Cowan said.

The April 30 launch event for the Steel Paws Wheat Ale, dedicated to Barr after his death, raised nearly $110,000 toward the department’s K-9 initiatives, the chief reported, adding that they have also received a separate infusion of about $46,000.

“We've got a couple of companies that are coming in that want to do medical training, making sure that our officers know if our dog has been bitten by a snake, how do they treat that?” Cowan said. “[We’re] making sure we have the best equipment. We've got four new canine vehicles that have come in. We're getting those outfitted, trying to get the best equipment that they can have to be able to provide the best services.”