Man's Best Friend

It's been a long month!

Life in a Garden Center during the month of May...is just that. Your life is spent at the Garden Center. I'm truly blessed to have a job I enjoy so much...the long days, long weeks and long month are just an is. Today is Thursday and I am off work! I took the weekend off work to attend John and Di's wedding...although there was good times, we were busy all the time! Basically, the last time I had a day off was on May 5th...long time ago.

So...last night, Hubster and I decided to meet outside the Village... in a place where there are shopping centers and restaurants. While in Ohio, my phone advised me to update...which I did. As a result, the phone has been moving at a snail's pace. I just haven't had time or energy to drive to civilization to have it looked at. Last night, we went to the Verizon store and they made an attempt to get the phone working...to no avail. A new phone is on its way to me. (OK, Verizon...make the check payable to....)

Driving home, we turned on to the road which leads to the Village. It's a two lane country road, lots of turns and trees. We came upon stopped cars and there we saw a pup laying in the middle of the road... it had just been hit by a car. A woman approached to injured pup, it tried desperately to move away...sadly, his hind legs did not move...I'm certain his back was broken. In a flash, the owner appeared and swooped the poor thing out of the road and took him towards the house. So terribly sad.

Needless to say, when I got home...I was so happy to see my little mutt. He greeted me in his "oh my goodness, I haven't seen you in five years" manner. Truly, if you are a dog lover, you know they are Man's Best Friend...loyal and compassionate.

All this, prompted today's post. Thinking of Military Dogs and the amazing work they do. I know my little mutt wants nothing more than to please me...and this is true for all the working dogs who want to please their masters.



Dogs have been fighting alongside U.S. soldiers for more than 100 years, seeing combat in the Civil War and World War I. But their service was informal; only in 1942 were canines officially inducted into the U.S. Army. Today, they're a central part of U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan -- as of early 2010 the U.S. Army had 2,800 active-duty dogs deployed (the largest canine contingent in the world). And these numbers will continue to grow as these dogs become an ever-more-vital military asset.

So it should come as no surprise that among the 79 commandos involved in Operation Neptune Spear that resulted in Osama bin Laden's killing, there was one dog -- the elite of the four-legged variety. And though the dog in question remains an enigma -- another mysterious detail of the still-unfolding narrative of that historic mission -- there should be little reason to speculate about why there was a dog involved: Man's best friend is a pretty fearsome warrior.

Above, a U.S. soldier with the 10th Special Forces Group and his dog leap off the ramp of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter during water training over the Gulf of Mexico as part of exercise Emerald Warrior on March 1.

Tech. Sgt. Manuel J. Martinez, U.S. Air Force/ DoD