MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Each day brings him closer to his last day on the job.

His supervisor, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Ricky McCoy, says the officer still does great work, but that he has lost a step.

His partner, Detective Troy Simmons, prays for him each morning before their shift starts and is saddened at the thought of retirement later this year.

Plus, Simmons will miss those wet kisses in the squad car.

"Dodger, this is his last hurrah, so to speak," the detective says.

That Dodger is a dog only makes their bond stronger – man’s best friend having spent eight years as the partner that Simmons trusts with his life.

Simmons has a remote-control button inside the squad car, and one on his belt, that he can push to open the right rear passenger door. When Dodger hears that "click," he knows, Simmons says, "Daddy needs me; I’m coming."

So, at Simmons’ house in Arlington, Tenn., pictures of the wife and kids share space with pictures of Daddy and Dodger – here they are posing in front of Dodger’s first "find," a kilo of cocaine.

As Simmons gives a visitor a tour of the photo gallery, Dodger, a 9-year-old German shepherd from Slovakia, plays in the family room with 2-year-old, pigtailed Allie and gives her some wet kisses.

"He’s real playful at home," says Angela, Troy’s wife. "You’d never know what he does. He’s a total pet."

A certain Alabama murder suspect might disagree. After a high-speed chase in Memphis, the suspect got stuck in traffic. Simmons and Dodger were the first to reach the suspect’s white pickup. Simmons repeatedly ordered the man to get out of the truck, but the man refused.

Once Simmons pulled the driver’s-side door open, Dodger took over – biting the suspect twice above the knee and dragging the man to the pavement.

"He very well could have had a pistol," McCoy says, holding up his cell phone to show off a picture of Dodger’s bite work.

Sheriff Mark Luttrell views the department’s canine unit as a model of economic efficiency. Over the years, the canine unit has helped in the seizure of millions of dollars in drugs and drug money.

Each German shepherd that is purchased from Slovakia costs more than $6,000, but dogs don’t receive benefits or salary beyond their daily four cups of dog food – "three and half cups, if you have a senior dog," Simmons says with a laugh.

"To put it mildly, it’s a force-multiplier," Luttrell says of the 14-dog unit, plus two other dogs owned by volunteer search-and-rescue team members. "It gives us another body, a body well-suited for the mission."

Two of the 14 dogs are assigned to the Special Operations Unit and are trained in bomb detection. Six other dogs work narcotics. Dodger is one of six dogs considered dual-purpose – used for apprehension of suspects and for drug work.

McCoy, who played on the 1985 Memphis State University Final Four basketball team, uses a vendor in Evansville, Ind., to help with the selection of the dogs from overseas.

"My philosophy is like a coach," McCoy says, "you go out and get the best possible athlete you can get. When we got Dodger (at age 2), I could tell he was a man of confidence."

And now?

He is still a man of confidence, "but I can see he’s slowed a little bit," McCoy says. "We’ve just been taking it a month at a time."

The morning after Dodger secured the Alabama murder suspect, the partners were back in the squad car patrolling. Simmons, 45, has 25 years on the job, and has worked on the SWAT team, but he goes all mushy thinking about what may have been Dodger’s last apprehension.

"I was tearing up," he says. "Once again, he met the challenge."

Don Wade works for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn.