The Eau Claire Police Department K-9 is protected now, thanks to a generous young girl.

In her short 12 years of life, Kaitlyn Simpson has been through a lot, which makes moments like these even more heartfelt.

"I think he's a great dog. He's really nice,” she said.

Kaitlyn has a soft spot for dogs like Franko.

"A German Shephard used to visit me named Beta. He used to visit me when I was a little kid in the hospital and I really remembered that,” Kaitlyn said.

She was born without the right side of her heart. By the time she was five she'd gone through two heart transplants. On Monday she was honored for her a heart of gold.

She raised $840 to get the Eau Claire K-9 Franko a protective vest.

“I took photos at the fall festival going on in our town," she said.

Kaitlyn lives four hours away from Eau Claire. She made the trip on Monday to "pay it forward" as she says to Franko and the Eau Claire Police Department who work to keep the people of Eau Claire safe.

“Very good thing. Special girl. I mean the whole story from health issues all the way through and then she's taking time off to do this for police dogs.

In his 19 years as Eau Claire Police K-9 Officer, Bill Wisener's K-9 has never had a protective vest.

"Every police officer in this department wears a vest and now Franko has one to wear too,” he said.

Now that she's helped Franko in Eau Claire, Kaitlyn's already thinking of ideas to raise more money and help another dog and another community.

"I have $450 toward another one," she said.

"A lot of people donated money toward me when I was a little kid so I thought I would give it back and help something in the community," Kaitlyn said.

Kaitlyn donated the money she raised through the Vest-a-Dogs program. Officer Wisener says that program is working to get every police K-9 in the state a protective vest.