Illness precedes end of watch for Greensburg Fire Department bloodhound

Members of the Greensburg Fire Department Bloodhound Team are mourning the loss of Sophy, an 11-year-old veteran bloodhound who died Tuesday after an extended illness.

During her service with the team, Sophy took part in 111 deployments, assisting area fire departments and law enforcement agencies, concluding with her final response on May 17.

In addition to working in the field with handler Elysia Battistella of Hempfield, Sophy was a treasured family pet for Battistella and her two young children.

Sophy was “a wonderful companion, very loving,” said Battistella’s father, Lou Battistella, who is a veteran handler and captain of the bloodhound team. “She was very protective of the children.”

For Sophy and the team’s remaining bloodhounds, using their superior olfactory sense to track a suspect or search for a missing person is like a game of hide-and-seek, according to Lou Battistella.

“They want to please,” he said. “They’ll give you a big kiss at the end of the trail.”

One of the highlights in Sophy’s long career was finding a missing toddler in Mt. Pleasant Township, based on a scent from the child’s car seat.

“It was a good find,” Battistella said, noting Sophy and his daughter “were able to find the child in a field in about 10 minutes.”

More often, he said, bloodhounds and their handlers “develop a sense of direction for the ground searchers, and we let them go out in front of us.”

Sophy’s “end of watch” came after she was diagnosed with Cushing’s disease. The condition is caused by a pituitary tumor and results in an excess of the steroid hormone cortisol in the blood, according to the American Kennel Club.

The debilitating impact on Sophy became apparent last summer, according to Battistella. “Over three or four months, she lost 11 pounds of muscle in her hindquarters,” he said.

Sophy and her sister, Fancy, teamed with handler Doug Fordyce, joined the Greensburg bloodhound team together in May 2010.

On Tuesday, Sophy was laid to rest at Pet Haven Cemetery in Hempfield. She joined 22 previously departed K-9 team members, including Fancy, who died Jan. 20.

Losing a canine family member is hard, but when the dog is also a working partner, Battistella said, “it moves the heartfelt pain of loss up a couple of notches.”

Six bloodhounds remain on the team, which was founded in 1969 by Greensburg fire Chief J. Edward Hutchinson in 1969.

Elysia Battistella will continue to train and deploy with the team, now partnered with 6-year-old Darcy, one of her father’s bloodhounds.