SALT LAKE CITY (KSL)– Decades before highly trained K-9s arrived on the scene, the Salt Lake City Police Department boasted a different kind of police dog.

“Bunjo” was a stray that “just showed up one day” in 1908, according to Judy Dencker, a retired captain and co-founder of the Salt Lake City Police and Fire Museum.

Soon, though, the mutt became a mascot whose presence was felt at the department for decades — even long after his death, thanks to the work of a taxidermist.

Dencker said officers paid to have Bunjo stuffed.

“For a long time after that, rumors were that he either sat in the chief’s office or that he sat by the door of the squad room where the guys would pat him on the head as they were going out on their beats, you know, for good luck, stuff like that,” Dencker said.

Read more: http://bit.ly/2fUB0eX