Photo: Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office Det. Edward Pawlick (left) with K-9 Finn and James Wiater, who donated a pet oxygen mask kit to the department. (courtesy photo).
James Wiater is using a portion of proceeds from the sale of his children’s book to purchase bullet-proof vests for police dogs and pet oxygen masks for rescue squads and fire departments.
What started as a story about a K-9 officer that Wiater had made up for his daughters, Kaci and Nikki, became “The Adventures of Solo, The Big Dog” after Wiater learned about K-9 Solo, who was killed in the line of duty in Bradley Beach in 1998.
“Back in 1998, after reading the article about the police standoff and how Solo lost his life in the line of duty, I made a promise to myself that one day I would purchase a bullet proof vest for a K-9 officer,” Wiater, of Millstone in Somerset County, said while speaking recently at a New Jersey State PBA meeting in Edison.
One vest and two pet oxygen kits have been donated since the book was first published eight months ago. K-9 Edge of the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office received the first vest in January. Wiater is also hoping to purchase K-9 first aid field trauma kits and K-9 cooling vests.