Sometimes, you know, it’s just meant to be. Go with the flow. Let it happen. It feels good. It’s the right thing to do. So, let’s just do it. And they did.

So it was and so it is today for Roxy the pup. Cpl. Nick Nitzband of the Blount County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) and Corry Cabe, a nurse at Blount Memorial Hospital and the mother of their two kids, turned out to be the family Roxy needed, a family who wanted her, who loves her. Lucky pooch.

Nitzband, 42, has saved lives in his 14 years at BCSO. This time around he may have saved the life of Roxy, who is growing into what he thinks is a mixed-breed dog – German Shepherd and pit bull. “Right now, she’s like having an annoying little sister around and she’s slowly being put in her place by the pack,” Nitzband says. “She’s going to be bigger than I thought too.”

Roxy at about 5 weeks

Roxy is the fourth member of the Nitzband Pack. Bak, a Czech Shepherd, is a retired canine deputy who was Nitzband’s partner for five years and is now 11. Next comes Eris. She’s almost a year old and is a Belgian Malinois who joined the family in February and is being trained by Nitzband. The “family” dog is little Libby. “She was a mutt that someone found wandering the streets that they posted on Facebook and we saw it, went and looked at her and now she sleeps in the bed with us,” he says.

So, you wonder, exactly how did Nitzband and Roxy meet?

The story began on September 20. Nitzband was on patrol and saw a car that matched the description of a stolen vehicle. A woman was driving and he pulled her over in what was a felony stop. “She pulled into a Domino’s parking lot and when I asked her to roll the window down, she refused,” he says. “So instead of escalating, I called the SWAT team and when they arrived, she decided to cooperate.”

She opened the door and as she was getting out something black fell out of her lap.

“This little furball hit the pavement and I reached down and picked it up and this little puppy cuddled with me immediately,” Nitzband said. “We arrested the woman and I told her that when she made bail and got out of jail, she could pick up her puppy at the shelter. She looked at me and said, ‘I’m not coming back for that dog.’ That really impacted me a lot.”

So, Roxy was off to the Blount County Animal Center for what turned out to be a 10-day stay. Five days into her stay Nitzband took the family to meet the dog and spend time with her. Five days later, on Sept. 30, he adopted her and picked her up.

The shelter staff had named her “Domino” in honor of where she was found. But little Gemma, 8, a third grader at Porter Elementary School, took a picture of her new puppy to school and asked her friends what would be a good name for her other than Domino. They all liked Roxy – so Roxy she is.

“Just seeing her that day, during our initial contact, I knew she needed a place to go, a real home,” Nitzband said. “She is very smart and intuitive and really playful and she likes to get into stuff. We have to keep a close eye on her right now. She is finding and bringing out things we didn’t know we’d lost.”

His law enforcement career began in 2008. He worked for 3½ years in the jail and was on the Corrections Emergency Response Team and the BSORT (Blount Special Operations Response Team) that handles search and rescue and diving rescues and recoveries.

Nitzband is a public safety diver. He graduated from the 12-week Regional Law Enforcement Academy Class 007 in 2012 and was honored with the Don E. Boring Award as the top graduate.

Nitzband grew up in Walland and graduated from Maryville High School in 1999. Here are some quick facts about his career:

  • Selected as Blount County’s Deputy of the Year in 2014.
  • On Christmas Eve Day in 2013 a house fire destroyed a home of six – Mom and Dad and four kids – plus all of their Christmas gifts. Nitzband quickly organized a shopping trip and then a wrapping party, found a Santa Claus and drove to the hotel for a Merry Christmas. It was Nitzband’s idea. For that he received the 2013 Red Cross Hero of the Year.
  • He was one four Blount County deputies (along with Austin Kirkland, Greg McCowan and Christina Wallen) to receive the Lifesaving Award after they saved a man from a burning vehicle in May 2021.

Nitzband’s father, Gary, spent 36 years with the Maryville Police Department. His aunt, his father’s sister, is a long-time detective for the Metro Nashville Police Department and he has two great uncles who were officers in Wisconsin. “Law enforcement has always been a family business for us,” he said.

Four dogs and counting maybe? At one point they had six pooches in the family.

“Corry and I are like minded about dogs,” he said. “If we had the space and the money there would not be any dogs in the shelter.”

Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia.