A little girl in the United States with an inoperable brain tumour with a huge love for dogs received a special surprise on Saturday (March 9). A group of about 40 police officers were seen queueing with dogs from the Hartford police department's K-9 unit outside a house in Hartford, Wisconsin, on Saturday. They were stopping by to surprise seven-year-old Emma Mertens, whose family had asked social media for pictures of dogs to brighten her spirits. Emma was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma in January this year, and has since been through surgery and radiation therapy. The avid dog-lover was overjoyed by the surprise, and pictures showed her smiling and patting the dogs. On a Facebook page set up for her named Team EmmaEmmalovesdogs7, a post said: "There are no words... Pure joy! Thank you to everyone who took the time to organise and participate in this. Emma is still all smiles! Over 35 different departments and many more K-9s and officers." A post on the Wisconsin Humane Society's Facebook page on Feb 28 had asked users to post photos of dogs in the comments for Emma to look at. The post has since garnered almost 180,000 comments, featuring adorable pictures of all yypes of dogs, and even the occasional cat. The amount of dog pictures the family have received has been overwhelming, said a post on the Team Emma Facebook page. The family had received so many pictures through regular mail and e-mail that they set up the Facebook page to channel all pictures there instead. The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office in Wisconsin also posted on its Facebook page a letter to Emma from two of its K-9 dogs named Nina and Poncho. The letter was signed with both names written in a shaky scrawl, and accompanied with a paw print from each dog.