An NYPD detective recounted to amNewYork the terrifying moment her canine partner overdosed on fentanyl and how she used Narcan to save the pup’s life.
Photo by Dean Moses
NYPD Detective Katherine Gill nearly lost her four-legged best friend and crime-fighting partner in a recent drug bust.
Gill and Mulk, a 6-year-old drug-sniffing canine, are more than just the only K9 duo on the Drug Enforcement Task Force — composed of the NYPD, DEA, and other agencies — they are also best friends who both work and live together. Mulk is specially trained to detect narcotics, which gives authorities probable cause to enter premises if she detects illegal substances, so when the pair were working together on a large drug bust earlier this month that yielded some pounds of fentanyl worth around $7.5 million, they thought it was just another day in the job.
Gill explained that her beloved pooch sniffed the doorway of one of the three locations and alerted the task force that drugs were inside. When the team made entry, Gill took Mulk back to her vehicle. A few minutes later, she noticed that Mulk’s demeanor had drastically changed.
“I was checking on her; her ears were back. She wasn’t responding to my voice, to my commands. I took her out of her kennel in the car and tried to get her to walk, and she couldn’t use her hind legs. She was dragging them, and her pupils were like pinpoints,” Gill recalled. “So I knew, based on the training that I’ve had, that she was most likely exposed to narcotics.”
Realizing that time was of the essence, Gill retrieved Narcan — the same nasal spray used to resuscitate overdosing humans — and administered it to the hound carefully into each nostril by covering one with her finger and spraying the other.
“Within about a minute or two, she came back to her normal self. She was able to walk and use her hind legs again. Her ears had perked up. She was now responding to my voice,” Gill said. “I was a little bit panicked. I mean, she’s my partner. Her health obviously takes precedence over everything. She’s a valued member of our unit, and I had to make sure she was okay, so I was nervous and anxious.”
It is not clear exactly how Mulk ingested the fentanyl, but Gill theorizes that because it was in powder form, it was also airborne.
In the days since the incident, Gill says Mulk has suffered no other ill effects. Still, the emotional incident has stayed with the detective.
The duo doesn’t just work together removing drugs from the streets; they spend 24/7 hours a day at each other’s side. Gill described them as best friends, so the thought of losing that friend was unbearable.
“She’s with me more than my children, honestly,” Gill said. “Dog people don’t really understand. We came through the academy together. We learned each other’s temperament and attitude and personalities at the same time, and we learned how to find drugs together and how to work together, and we do work really well as a team.”
Mulk is a star player in her unit. Over her career, she has discovered more than 300 kilos of drugs. In 2024 alone, she found 120 kilos. In addition to taking drugs off the streets, Mulk’s favorite pastime is playing with her tennis ball.
