Misty hopped out of a parked K9 vehicle in the rear of the Flathead County Justice Center last week, eagerly wrapping her visitors in a hug. But she grew taciturn when the conversation turned to her impending retirement.

Questions about her plans after leaving the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office went unanswered. Her gaze shifted downward, focused on the feet below her when asked about her career highlights.

“Right now, it’s what’s on your shoes,” said a wry Cpl. Charles Pesola, who has served as handler for the German shorthaired pointer since she joined the agency in 2019.

Misty might be humble about her work as a drug-sniffing dog, but Pesola has no such compunction. He credited Misty with removing tens of thousands of doses of narcotics, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, from the streets. Her sense of smell led to thousands of search warrants, Pesola said. 

“She worked hard and she deserves to relax for a little bit,” Pesola said of the roughly 8-year-old Misty, who will likely hang up her collar in early January. 

Originally hailing from Serbia, she formed one half of the Sheriff’s Office’s relaunched K9 program in 2019, Pesola said. Sheriff Brian Heino had expressed interest in creating a K9 unit in the leadup to his election, he recalled. A couple of months after he was sworn in, Pesola and former Deputy Matt Vander Ark approached Heino about getting the program off the ground. 

At the time, Pesola was wary of becoming a handler. But when he learned the Sheriff’s Office was interested in “floppy-eared sporting dogs,” he changed his mind. 

The two have logged thousands of hours of training since becoming a team, Pesola estimated. After working together for years, he can read her body language. Even the sound of her breathing can clue Pesola into what scent she has picked up. 

“At this stage, I can tell when she’s searching for drugs or people,” he said. 

When it’s another animal she’s picked up, her hind leg shakes. 

“That takes a long time to recognize,” Pesola added. 

Although the two spent time attached to patrol, working a shift together, the Sheriff’s Office has since organized a standalone K9 unit. When not busy investigating drug-related cases, Pesola and Misty respond at the request of deputies working in the field. The pair need what is known as a particularized suspicion of drugs to deploy owing to Montana’s privacy laws, Pesola said. 

Once that standard is met, the two head out to the scene. If Misty indicates the presence of drugs in, say, a vehicle, then investigators can go after a search warrant, Pesola said. 

Misty has been involved in several large cases, including one with several defendants who later ended up with federal prison sentences, Pesola said. One case that immediately comes to mind, though, involved a children’s toy shipped via a delivery service. 

Misty indicated the package contained drugs and when authorities opened it, they found the toy laden with fentanyl in powder form. While Misty was, at the time, not certified to detect fentanyl, she had picked up on a small amount of cocaine in the shipment, Pesola recalled. 

She has since been certified to detect fentanyl, which is increasingly prevalent in the Flathead Valley, he said. 

As Pesola went through Misty’s resume, colleagues stopped by to ask how the pair were doing. The day prior, Pesola and Misty took part in a pursuit of an allegedly stolen vehicle in the county. They joined after wrapping up a presentation at the Evergreen elementary school, he recalled. While Misty wasn’t involved in the arrest of 42-year-old Andy Wigner, who now faces felony charges of attempted deliberate homicide and criminal endangerment in Flathead County District Court, she underwent roughly 22 minutes of pursuit driving, Pesola said. 

It was a rough ride for a dog already suffering from a degenerative joint disorder affecting her knees. Pesola knows Misty loves the job as much as he does; she’s always waiting and ready for him in her kennel. 

The pair share the same mantra.

“We don’t take ourselves out of the game,” Pesola said. 

“We’re going to have to drag her out of this,” he added after a beat.

Come January, Pesola expects he’ll just let her out into the yard instead of letting her join him on his commute. There she’ll find the rest of the family’s pack, which includes a pair of English mastiffs, a lab mix, cockapoo and miniature schnauzer, waiting for her. 

“I’ve been dreading the day,” Pesola said. “I keep saying I’m going to turn her loose. … She’s such an active dog, I’m nervous.”

Pesola, who plans on pursuing his career in the agency, just not as a full-time K9 handler, hopes he can continue to bring her to work on a part-time basis. She remains a great ambassador for the Sheriff’s Office, he said. 

“Everybody loves Misty,” Pesola said. “She loves people. She loves doing her job and people.”

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.