Stories of Norwich Police Sergeant Nicholas Rankin and his former canine partner, Keeto, include a “close call” while assisting Stonington with a series of car burglaries.

As Rankin tells the story, he is following Keeto, who is tracking a scent, down a long, dirt driveway behind a house into swampy, marshland – at which point they “lose” their backup.

Eventually, as they trudge through the muck, Rankin hears about 20 yards in front of him, “Drop the gun. Drop the gun. Drop the gun.” He explains, “A good perimeter officer from Stonington had spotted this guy ducked behind a tree, holding a gun in his hand, kind of like waiting for us.”

It turned out that the burglar found the gun in a car.

Rankin is quick to point out during a telephone interview that canine units are often romanticized, but they are part of a larger team.

That said, Rankin has been saved by Keeto.

In this story, during a midnight shift, Rankin pursues two cars “ripping” around Burnham Square (by what is now Amazing Furniture) and follows them to the East Side center district where he winds up on East Cliff Street “nose to nose with the two cars chasing each other, so I flipped my lights to stop them,” he says

Cracking their necks and clenching their fists, four men get out of one of the cars and start walking toward Rankin even though he has instructed them to stay in their cars. “So I called Keeto. He jumps out the window and comes up to me.”

Rankin tells the men not to come any closer or he will send his dog, at which point Keeto starts barking and three of the men “back right off.” The fourth, who had an outstanding warrant, tries to run and Keeto “takes him down.”

Another time, the canine unit approaches the scene of a large bar fight and an unruly crowd. “I had to pop Keeto out of the car and people backed right off, which was nice, because they were starting to get pretty aggressive towards us.”

Keeto became Rankin’s canine partner on Thanksgiving Day 2012, after the officer’s first German shepherd, 14-month-old Grim, “washed out of the academy” because of an injury.

“He slipped on ice while we were practicing building searches, and he got hurt and it kind of made him scared of slippery floors,” Rankin said.

Slated to go to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a special rush request to a vendor sent 3-year-old Keeto to Rankin instead. “We’re already halfway through the academy. We’ve got catching up to do.”

Rankin said Keeto “came looking to bond.” Describing the first time he took him home and got him out of the crate, he said, “He jumped right up on me. He would grab around the waist with his body and squeeze (like hugging).”

After growing up in a dog-training facility and apprenticing under his mother who bred German shepherds, Rankin said he always knew he wanted to be a canine officer. First, however, a candidate has to go through the regular police academy and then be on patrol for a substantial amount of time.

Renaming his beloved partner of six years after a superhero name he created as a child, Rankin said Keeto was both intense and aloof, but “not really a pet. I always said he’s a true partner. He was an equal. And especially given the fact that he had road experience that I didn’t. We’re a team. He can’t do what he has to do without me there to handle (him) and to provide the extra stuff. I can’t do what I have to do without his ability. So we were very close.”

Working the midnight to 8 a.m. shift and together 24/7, he said they “melded pretty well” from the beginning.

“He was kind of an example in some regards. He was so persistent in what he did. And he was very level-headed,” Rankin said.

He said canines and their handlers learn from each other.

“I think we both civilized each other a little bit. He had to learn how to live with the family,” Rankin said, adding Keeto had to “become a little bit more constrained in the way that he operated.”

Characteristics he gained by being Keeto’s handler include confidence and “more of a sense of independence,” because canines are a tool to find people, but “you’re like the expert on that tool, because it’s based on an individual relationship.”

Now when Rankin conducts interviews for canine units, he asks officers, “What characteristics are you putting into your dog? What can we expect out of your dog if they are like you?”

Rankin was promoted in 2017 from patrol officer to midnight shift sergeant. The following year, he also stepped into community policing command as unit sergeant, which deals with “quality of life in the city” and “what is important to the community from us right now,” he said.

He decided in 2018 to retire Keeto, who was then 9 years old.

“It was helpful occasionally (to have Keeto as a partner), but mostly, it was a difficult balance of ‘I need to be on this scene and managing the people and I can’t go take off into the woods anymore.’”

Rankin added, “I really wanted him to have a long, healthy retirement. I felt he had earned it. I mean he certainly found enough people, enough evidence and protected me a few times, for sure. And, you know, he put in the work.”

Unfortunately, six months after Keeto retired, the dog slipped a disc and was paralyzed from his shoulders back. Because the prognosis was that his condition was permanent even with physical therapy, Keeto was using a loaned wheelchair. Rankin started a GoFundMe account to pay for months of medical expenses and his own wheelchair, which was featured on Channel 3 with Kevin Hogan and garnered $16,000. It turned out they only used $4,000 of the fund, because Keeto surprised everyone by walking again after several months.

The rest of the money was put into an account, which still exists today for the Norwich Canine Unit.

“Anytime something comes up, we’re going to conference and we’re going to talk and say, ‘What’s the smartest thing to do for this handler, for this dog?’ and let’s get him the money to make it happen,” said Rankin, explaining handlers take over medical expenses once their dogs retire.

Initially not happy with being left home and not going to work, Keeto eventually adjusted. As the years went by, he wasn’t as fast, but he would still chase a ball, play and train a bit.

In addition to his community policing responsibilities, Rankin is now temporarily part of the Training and Selections Unit. “We do all the testing to make sure that they’re suitable candidates. We help them out through the academy through field training, all that. And then we keep everybody’s certification current, make sure that they’re going to enough training and get them all signed up.”

In 2021, Rankin said he could see 13-year-old Keeto’s hips starting to “really go again” and he couldn’t stand for long. He was also losing weight and bone density; he was almost deaf and his sight was starting to fail.

“It was time to make the call. And it’s one of those things that I think everybody dreads because you don’t want to prolong suffering, but you don’t want to act too quickly,” he said, adding they tried “to work the timing in as carefully and lovingly” as they could.

Keeto was euthanized in October. On Nov. 13, third- and-fourth-grade students at St. Patrick Cathedral School made a special presentation to Community Policing Unit Supervisor Sergeant Nicholas Rankin. The students gave Rankin homemade sympathy cards, a beautiful sketch of Officer Rankin and Keeto drawn by local artist Mark O’Neill, whose child attends the school, and a dog statue with the inscription “My Hero.”

Receiving the students’ gifts “was overwhelming and unexpected,” Rankin said. “It’s kind of one of those things that even though it is deeply personal to you, you don’t expect others to necessarily take notice.”

Especially in his alone hours, Rankin said he misses Keeto. “It’s like three, four times a day something will happen, and I’ll be like, ‘Man, where’s Keeto?’”

Jan Tormay, a longtime resident of Norwich, now lives in Westerly.