Paying tribute to Steubenville’s late K-9 officer

CADIZ -- The Police K9 Association's search for someone to make a shadow box to remember K-9 Bono ended in a place one may not have expected -- Harrison Central High School.

Bono, who was the Steubenville Police Department's beloved K-9 officer, died unexpectedly in November.

The Police K9 Association, after some searching, found just the group to make a custom-made shadow box, which holds Bono's vest along with an engraving of the police badge, in Cain Noble's industrial arts class.

"This was brought to us by Amy Stover, the vice president of the Police K9 Association," he said. "They brought to my attention they were looking for a shadow box for Bono and other places around the community wanted to use (Bono's) vest."

The students of the class designed and constructed the box, using a vest offered by Cadiz Police Department officer C.J. Byers as a placeholder so they could size the box without needing Bono's vest.

"That set this whole project up," Noble said. "The end result is the shadow box."

The box was presented to Steubenville Police Sgt. Rob Cook, Bono's handler for eight years, on Wednesday morning.

"This is very special, Bono was a very special dog," Cook said. "He did a lot of great things for the city of Steubenville, Jefferson County, and surrounding counties when he was asked as well. To have the class do this for myself and to honor Bono means a lot. It means a lot because Bono was a special dog and they're paying tribute to him."

The school and students being from neighboring Harrison County -- Harrison Central's campus is about a 30-minute drive from downtown Steubenville -- despite most of Bono's career having been spent in Jefferson County, just made the gesture all that much for special to Cook.

"It's amazing," Cook said of the box coming from Harrison Central students. "I appreciate it more than I can express. To have them, from an outside county, do something like this for Bono, is amazing.

"Bono did come into Harrison schools on a couple of separate occasions, but for the most part served Jefferson County. To have an outside county come together and do something like this is pretty special. I appreciate it a lot."

Principal Ken Parker called it "a proud day to be a Husky."

"It's a great life lesson for the students," he said. "It doesn't just have to be someone from where you're from to help.

"This was an awesome job by Noble's class."

In addition to Cook and Byers, also on hand for the presentation were officers from the Harrison County Sheriff's Department and Wintersville Police Department.