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An unprecedentedly sweet tribute to Black Sabbath required that the local police bestow upon it an act worthy of the chaotic-good spirit that needed to be born. This weekend, the world-famous metal band shall perform their next-to-last concert in their birth city of Birmingham, and it seemed apt, in the local cops’ minds, to do their wittiest tribute ironically: naming a litter of Sprocker puppies after all the band members of Black Sabbath. Do meet Ozzy, Toni, Sabbath, Billie, Wizard, Geezer, and yes, Sharon Osbourne, because of course, Sharon was included.
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The picture, oh my, awww in its pure form, showed the pups sitting on the steps under the Galactic sign “Black Sabbath Bridge” with black and white cutouts of the band members hovering ominously behind them like rock guardian angels. The whole thing just screams Birmingham-wonder; a little gritty.
The reaction came almost immediately, and man, were they funny. One could not contain herself and expressed that the irony of a drug-sniffing dog existing called Ozzy, whereas the frontman himself had a… let’s say… colorful career with substances, rings beyond irony. “The irony of someone getting busted for carrying drugs after getting sniffed out by ‘Ozzy’ 😂,” she said. Another user said, “So will OZZY be a drugs dog then…,” and to which someone responded, “The best drug sniffer of all!”
Of course, not everyone appreciated the Sharon embrace. “Sharon ain’t part of tha fookin band,” grumbled one purist, while another joked in Spanish, “Sharon realmente quiere estar en el centro de atención.” But mostly, they were just here for an overdose of adorable. “This is EPIC 🦇,” one commenter proclaimed, “Fur babies are beautiful 😍,” declared another.
One very nostalgic-laced comment took it back: “I am old enough to remember when the band rented a farmhouse at Bishampton in Worcestershire. I met the band then in the early 1970s.” Some days later: “This is sooooo coooool!!! What a cool story!”
The puppies, indeed the most metal litter to ever exist in the history of police dogs, are now going home with volunteer puppy walkers for their first weeks, at the end of which actual training begins. The department gave a great explanation about why this time is so important to help mold these puppies into well-adjusted and confident police dogs. And for real, if they get even half of Black Sabbath’s energy, say goodbye to the evildoers.
Working backward as the links of this tribute begin to tie up as the memory of that moment in time, it is surely a somber one as Birmingham stands at the cusp of bidding adieu to its greatest musical export. Black Sabbath’s penultimate home town show is a turning of a page, with these pups literally going into law history by their snooping.
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From the stage back onto the street, this city’s rock spirit is wide and barking! And if little Ozzy starts chewing on stuffed toys mid-training, well…we’ll just have to live with it!
