When the City of North Bay celebrated its first 50 years of incorporation in 1975, a legendary jail break cast a pall on the festivities, leading to a month-long manhunt and tragic end to Canada’s most accomplished and famed police dog. North Bay OPP police dog Cloud II is a Canadian legend, earning national acclaim and honours before and after being killed in the line of duty to help end the Donald Kelly manhunt in 1975. 1 / 1 North Bay OPP police dog Cloud II is a Canadian legend, earning national acclaim and honours before and after being killed in the line of duty to help end the Donald Kelly manhunt in 1975. Advertisement When the City of North Bay celebrated its first 50 years of incorporation in 1975, a legendary jailbreak cast a pall on the festivities, leading to a month-long manhunt and tragic end to Canada’s most accomplished and famed police dog. And as the city prepares for its Centennial Celebration this year, it’s fast approaching 50 years since Cloud II laid his life down to help capture Donald Kelly. Cloud II and North Bay OPP handler Ray Carson were already household names by then. One of their most note-worthy takedowns came two years before the German Shepherd’s heroic demise. The K-9 partners had followed a trio of juvenile offenders – training school escapees – to an ice hut on the outskirts of North Bay. It was reported that Cloud II stormed into the hut and came out with a loaded semiauto .22 rifle, forcing one youth to drop his knife and another to give up a large plank of wood being wielded as a club. It was one of many fanged arrests, Cloud II’s reputation was further galvanized by public displays of his training and natural ability at schools and events. The photo topping this story was glued to a large tribute stand used by the Nipissing Kennel Club at its 1975 annual fall competition. They had a donation jar out to raise money for the North Bay Humane Society. One of the four-foot-high panels had 10 related articles about Cloud II taped to it. The Nugget’s Betty Alcorn reported the famous dog’s death, her story published across the country the day before he was laid to rest on Sept. 3, 1975. “To the populace generally he was a hero, larger-than-life. To a small child, lost in the woods, he was a tail-wagging saviour. To a fugitive criminal, he was a furious, fanged terror. To Const. Ray Carson, he was a trusted and durable partner,” Alcorn began the article. The Nugget included many photos in the coverage. A 24-officer honour guard flanked the route for the four pallbearers carrying Cloud II to the plot between the flag poles of the District 12 OPP headquarters off Chippewa Street. Flags were at half-staff throughout Canada and Ontario, with more than 400 people gathered for a “policeman’s burial.” An editorial stated that one of Cloud II’s first assignments was tracking some of the 14 inmates who had escaped Millhaven Penitentiary in 1972, Ontario’s largest jailbreak at the time. In total during his career, Cloud II made 123 arrests and the December 1973 example of disarming three youths earned an induction into the Purina Animal Hall of Fame in 1974. The pair also appeared on CBC’s Front Page Challenge several months before the Kelly manhunt. “The file on Cloud II is a mighty one. He has sniffed caches of marijuana, has found people lost in the woods, and tracked down countless fugitives including, earlier this year, a convicted murderer who had failed to return to the penitentiary after a leave-of-absence pass,” Alcorn wrote. Attending the funeral service was a mother with her young daughter, Christel Golich, who Cloud II found after the two-year-old got lost in dense bush near Burk's Falls in May. The 90-pound canine had only started working in North Bay in 1972 after being trained at Mount Forest the year before, giving him only 3.5 years to capture the hearts of all who knew him. Don Gauthier, Nugget staff reporter, wrote the piece describing the end of the Kelly manhunt: ‘Carson recounts woodland drama as dog shot, fugitive wounded.’ At first, Cloud II hadn’t been part of the manhunt, which began after Kelly overpowered a guard and stole a rifle while escaping from the North Bay Jail on Aug. 2, 1975 – in the midst of the city’s festivities to celebrate its 50th anniversary of incorporation. Cloud II had been ill and was recuperating for most of August. Kelly, who had been awaiting trial for two murder charges, had evaded police and gained a cult-like following among some of the public by the time the Labour Day weekend approached. A fresh lead, however, reached Carson on his Sunday off after a break-in was reported at the Wahnapitae River pumphouse. “Headquarters wanted me to bring the dog and try to get a track on the person who had done this,” Gauthier quoted Carson, adding Sudbury soon after receiving another call from CNR personnel on a train passing through the Kukagami Lake area. They had “spotted a man along the right-of-way who ran into the bush and hid behind a tree when the train came along.” Carson arrived in that area about three hours after the sighting and Cloud II found the trail, with Kelly trying to shake them off by changing course and taking to the middle of a creek. Along with backup Ted Giannini, they worked until midnight before calling it a day. The trio resumed the search in the morning, taking a boat to Outlet Bay on Lake Wahnapitae to check on some cabins. They eventually found Kelly on the deck of a cabin and had the drop on him but the fugitive went for his rifle. Carson said he shot at Kelly with his pistol and thought he hit him but the man went over the railing and started to run. Cloud II was unleashed and caught up to the fugitive, grabbing at a pantleg because the rifle was held out of reach. Kelly got a shot off, hitting the dog between the shoulder blades. Giannini and Carson opened fire and Kelly darted into the bush, wounded in the shoulder. “I turned cold. I knew my protector and partner was dead,” Carson said, adding they left it to the other officers arriving to continue the chase. Cloud II died at the scene, becoming the first OPP police dog to die in the line of duty. Kelly was soon caught and convicted of the two murders, receiving a life sentence. He died in prison in 2009. A couple of years later, with the regional OPP moving to Gormanville Road, Cloud II was exhumed, and cremated and his ashes were brought to the provincial headquarters in Orillia. Carson, then 76 years old and a retired staff sergeant, attended the 2011 ceremony with his son, Tony. Carson, who handled three K-9 unit police dogs named Cloud 1, 2 and 3, passed away in 2014.