Tissue (Box) Alert! Watch Veterans Reunite with Their Beloved Dogs

Unless you have a heart of stone, videos of veterans being reunited with their delighted dogs should never fail to bring a tear (or 100) to your eyes. In honor of Veterans Day, here are some of the most heartwarming, in my humble opinion.

Marine Reunites with K-9 Partner 2 Years Later

After a two-year separation, last year Marine Sgt. Jacob Varela was reunited with Atilla, a German Shepherd who’s a trained tracker dog. The two had worked together for three years in a special operations unit.

“We were together for everything, everywhere I went out in the field,” Varela told WGN. “If I was drinking water, he was drinking water. He’s an actual teammate.”

When Varela found out that 9-year-old Atilla was being retired, he decided to adopt his former partner. The nonprofit organization Mission K9 Rescue, whose mission is to reunite military dogs with their handlers, helped to make this happen.

In July 2019, Varela and Atilla were reunited at Midway International Airport in Chicago. “The way he reacted, the way he jumped on me, he knows who I am, so that’s good,” Varela said.

Senior Golden Retriever Reunites with Dog Mom

Buddy, a 13-year-old, arthritic and partially deaf Golden Retriever, had been with her dog mom, Hannah Foraker, ever since she was a puppy. Foraker had never been away from her home in Cleveland, Ohio, when she joined the Army in 2015.

After a three-month separation, Foraker returned home for two weeks at Christmastime. “Buddy came running, as best as she could, out of the house and said hello to everyone,” Foraker told FOX 8 at the time. “At first she didn’t even realize I was there, but she did a double take and came bounding over to me, whining nonstop in pure glee.”

Foraker said Buddy never left her side during her visit.

After 3 Years, Soldier Reunites with His K-9 Partner

Vance McFarland and his bomb-sniffing K-9 partner, a Czech Shepherd named Ikar, spent two years together during a tour of duty in Afghanistan that ended in 2012.

Afterward, McFarland returned home to Boise, Idaho, while Ikar and other members of the Tactical Explosive Detection Dog (TEDD) program were bought by a private company and then left to languish in a boarding kennel. Fortunately, thanks to Mission K9 Rescue and the United States War Dogs Association posting photos of these dogs on social media, their former handlers, including McFarland, were successfully tracked down.

After a three-year separation, McFarland and Ikar were finally reunited, and it was all captured on video. McFarland adopted his loyal partner.

“Having a dog with you on deployment is almost like having a little bit of home,” McFarland told KTVB. “Other soldiers were jealous — they always wanted to come up and pet Ikar. We made the best of it.”

McFarland said Ikar “is going to live the rest of his retired life spoiled. Really spoiled.”

A Compilation for (Literally) Crying Out Loud

Still have some unused tissues left? Enjoy this compilation of veterans reuniting with their dogs that was put together by The Dodo.

You can make a donation to help Mission K9 Rescue facilitate more happy reunions.

Photo: Hannah Foraker/YouTube

Major Biden Will Be the First Pound Pup to Live in the White House

Update: Major and Champ Biden officially moved into the White House on Jan. 24. “The First Family wanted to get settled before bringing the dogs down to Washington from Delaware,” Michael LaRosa, First Lady Jill Biden’s press secretary, told CNN. “Champ is enjoying his new dog bed by the fireplace, and Major loved running around on the South Lawn.” 

Kamala Harris, who will become the first female and first person of color to be vice president of the United States, is not the only one who will be making history in January.

Major Biden, the German Shepherd adopted two years ago by Joe and Jill Biden, will become the first rescue dog to live in the White House. It’s hard to believe, but no former pound pups have lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the past 220 years.

Sure, there have been plenty of “First Dogs” — most recently, Bo and Sunny, the Portuguese Water Dogs belonging to the Obamas — but Major will be the first First Dog who wasn’t bought from a breeder or received as a gift. The Bidens have another German Shepherd, Champ, who was purchased by Joe from a breeder as a gift to Jill after the 2008 election.

The Bidens fostered Major from the Delaware Humane Association in November 2018 after their daughter, Ashley, sent them a photo of the German Shepherd. Who could resist that smile? Not the Bidens. Like so many people who are kind enough to give dogs temporary homes, they fell in love with Major, and he went from being their foster dog to their forever dog.

Last week, Biden tweeted a video of Donald Trump at a rally asking how he’d look walking a dog on the White House lawn. “I don’t feel good,” Trump said. In response, the tweet read, “Let’s put dogs back in the White House. Champ and Major for DOTUS.”

No matter who you supported in this contentious election, one thing is perfectly clear: Major is a very good boy. Here’s hoping he’s the first but not the last shelter dog to live in the White House.

Photo: @DrBiden/Twitter

Thank you, Denver! Voters End 31-Year Pit Bull Ban

Dog lovers everywhere, rejoice! The good people of Denver have overwhelmingly voted to end the city’s 31-year ban on Pit Bulls, mixes and dogs that happen to look like Pit Bulls.

Denver’s Pit Bull ban was one of the most notorious in the world. It was enacted back in 1989 after a 3-year-old boy wandered into his neighbor’s yard and was fatally attacked by an unspayed Pit Bull who was chained to a carport, according to the Denver Post. Three years earlier, another of the owner’s dogs had bitten an 8-year-old boy. Because of that one irresponsible owner 30 years ago, thousands of Denver residents have had to make the terrible choice of finding a new home for themselves or their beloved dogs, or surrendering their pets to the city to be euthanized.

Back in February, the Denver City Council voted to end the Pit Bull ban, but Mayor Michael Hancock overruled their decision. Fortunately, City Councilman Christopher Herndon, who had proposed ending the ban, introduced November ballot Measure 2J, leaving the decision up to Denver voters. More than 64% of them voted to end the ban.

Breed-specific legislation (BSL) — unfair laws, including breed bans, that single out dogs only because of how they look — has proven to be ineffective in increasing public safety and expensive to enforce wherever it’s been enacted. Thank you, Denver voters, for realizing this and ending your city’s ban.

There will, however, still be special requirements for Denver owners of Pit Bulls and mixes. The owners will have had to register their dogs with Denver Animal Protection, obtain a breed-restricted license, and have no more than two Pit Bulls. Yes, these requirements that single out certain dog breeds are still BSL (and B.S.), but removing the ban was an extremely important first step.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Denver voters who supported Measure 2J! You’ve literally helped to save countless innocent lives.

Photo: Those were my first two Pitties, Sophie and Larry, enjoying a mind meld.

Doggie Paradise: Hundreds of Strays Make Territorio de Zaguates Their Home

Although its official name is Territorio de Zaguates (the Land of Stray Dogs), the four-legged residents of this no-kill shelter in Costa Rica probably think of it more as El Cielo des Perros (Dog Heaven) — or at least the next best thing to a forever home.

About 800 dogs rescued from the streets live on the ranch in Alajuela until they are adopted. The nonprofit shelter was founded in 2008 by the husband-and-wife team of Alvaro Saumet and Lya Battle to promote animal welfare and respect. It is funded by donations and run by volunteers.

Many of the dogs are allowed to roam freely on the property for part of the day in an effort to improve their health and adoptability. There’s also an indoor area with beds and bathing facilities.

Years before an Arizona shelter started dropping breed labels to make dogs more adoptable, Territorio found another solution. It came up with a unique breed name for every mixed-breed dog as unique as the dog itself: Alaskan Collie Fluffyterrier and Fire-tailed Border Cocker, for example. In 2013, these names helped boost adoption rates a whopping 1,400 percent.

Visitors are welcome to take a hike with the dogs and, hopefully, find a perfect match.

“If you wish to adopt, you can schedule a walking hike on their property, and if any of them choose you, you will be allowed to adopt them,” wrote Andrew George in a Facebook post in March 2016 about Territorio de Zaguates that got a lot of media attention.

 

A Place for Dogs That No One Wanted

Both Saumet and Battle are longtime animal lovers. Saumet grew up with dogs, while Battle was more attracted to “unloved pets,” she said in an email. “I loved snakes, spiders, lizards, frogs – you name it!”

Battle said she grew up assuming that everyone loved dogs, and believed the many dogs she saw on the street were on their way to or from their homes. But as she got older, reality set in — and broke her heart.

After she and Saumet married and moved into a house with a yard, they adopted a couple of puppies from one of the only animal shelters in Costa Rica at the time. “A horrible, high-kill shelter that still stands,” Battle said. “Leaving that place that day, with our little pups in our arms, knowing that the ones we hadn’t chosen would probably die soon, killed me.”

Battle started taking in dogs that seemed to need help, nursing them back to health and having them spayed or neutered. “It was not a very common practice at the time,” she said. “I decided there had to be a place other than the street for those wonderful dogs that for some reason no one wanted.”

Oso, the dog who inspired Territorio, was the fourth or fifth stray Battle took in. “He was oddly beautiful,” she said. “Yellow with a white mask like a Husky, curled tail and little ears.” She noticed his tear ducts protruded, so she took him to a veterinarian, who performed a simple operation to fix them.

As Oso recovered, Battle posted flyers of the lost dog and took him out for walks, hoping he’d find his way home, but no such luck. He was adopted – and returned — seven times.

“Alvaro and I decided to stop trying to find him a home and just keep him,” Battle said. “And that is when I realized that Oso had been lucky. He was a lovely dog but had no market value. Did this mean that he or any of the ‘unpopular’ dogs deserve to be out on the street? Or even euthanized only because society could not see their redeeming qualities?”

That’s when the couple decided to start Territorio de Zaguates, “a place they could call home even if they should never find their own,” as Battle described it.

Since then, “Many dogs have left their paw prints in our hearts,” Battle said. “Old ones who made recoveries and hung around long after everyone had lost hope. Vicious ones that became teddy bears. Or dogs with social needs who proved undefeatable.”

 

Running the Shelter Isn’t Easy, But Always Worth It

While Territorio is paradise for dogs, running it has not been easy for Battle and Saumet.

“We have struggled daily against naysayers, haters, near-sighted government officials and ministries, terrible shortages and daily challenges of our own,” Battle said, adding that it has always been worth it.

“If a couple of ordinary people like us were able to do this for so long with no help from the authorities, without anything but their own jobs, their dwindling assets and a lot of stubborn determination and love, then big government budgets in other countries could do the same,” she said. “But shelters are not the solution — they are the reflection of our crumbling society. If we want to solve the problem, we have to stop buying from backyard breeders and demand our governments assign a portion of taxes to spaying and neutering all dogs and cats.”

Battle and Saumet have achieved a lot since they started Territorio de Zaguates. They’ve been successful in creating awareness about the problem of dog overpopulation in Costa Rica. They have helped minimize the stigma attached to strays and educated people about the importance of spaying and neutering. “But most of all we have been able to offer whoever is interested a different option to the word ‘shelter,’” Battle said.

“In Territorio, every dog has a name, a second chance and everything we can manage to provide for them. The only thing we refuse to give them is an expiration date.”

For more information about this heaven on earth for stray dogs and how you can help, visit the Territorio de Zaguates website.

 

This story was originally published on Care2.com in April 2016.

Photos: Facebook

Border Collie Detects Possible Survivor One Month after Beirut Explosion

One month after an explosion in Beirut injured thousands and claimed over 100 lives, a 5-year-old Border Collie named Flash led rescuers to someone who may have miraculously survived for 30 days in a collapsed building.

Flash is a sniffer dog who was working with TOPOS, a search-and-rescue team dispatched to Beirut from Chile. He is trained to find bodies and alert his team. As Flash and his human team members walked the streets in Beirut’s historic Mar Mikhail district yesterday, Flash suddenly rushed over to some rubble, the Associated Press reports.

Using audio equipment, TOPOS detected what sounded like a pulse of 18 to 19 beats per minute. The rescue team has used cranes, shovels and their bare hands to dig through the rubble in their efforts to reach the possible survivor. As of this morning, the pulse has dropped to seven beats per minute, and the rescue team continues to try to find its source.

Francisco Lermanda, the head of the rescue team, told local TV station Al Jadeed this morning that he couldn’t confirm whether there was a living or dead person under the rubble, and the rescue work would go on.

“Ninety-nine percent there isn’t anything, but even if there is less than 1 percent hope, we should keep on looking,” Youssef Malah, a civil defense worker, told Al Jadeed yesterday.

Flash has deservedly become a social media superhero. Some residents of Beirut posted that Flash cares more about Lebanese people than their own government does. The explosion was caused by about 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate that was unsafely stored at Beirut’s port.

Photo: @Joyce_Karam/Twitter

Exit mobile version