Daisy – Chronicles of a Blogaholic

“The good lord in his ultimate wisdom gave us three things
to make life bearable, hope, jokes and dogs,
but the greatest of these was dogs.
Robin Davidson

War Dogs by Rebecca Frankel

I just finished reading War Dogs, by Rebecca Frankel. It was a great read about dogs of war from the civil war to the current war in the Middle East.

I’m married to a Vietnam Veteran that worked with dogs during his time in Vietnam. A few of the stories Frankel tells about I was familiar with. However, there are several tear-jerking tales that I was not aware of.

The book tells how each handler and his dog have an unbreakable bond. So much so that they will often give their life for each other, dog for man and man for dog.

This book should be required reading for all our politicians that push this country towards war.

In my opinion, these dogs of war and their handlers should be honored yearly as a National Holiday.

Shine On

“When we love an animal as our family,
we begin to understand animals are our family.”
Anthony Douglas Willliams

It’s been almost a week since the devastating earthquake hit Nepal. Over 6,000 were killed by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and they estimate that number could double.

The most inspiring story I heard on the news today was a story about six recently trained search and rescue dogs from Southern California who are in Nepal on a mission. One of the dogs, Ripley helped in the rescue of a teenage boy trapped under debris in Kathmandu.

Most of the dogs trained for search and rescue are dogs from the pound. They’re super athletic, super agile, extremely high-drive dogs that just will not stop. They are taught to find humans by using inaccessible human scent. Their reward, isn’t a yummy treat, it’s their favorite toy.

Search and rescue dogs are the unsung heroes of the world. With love, care and training these discarded dogs go from being rescued to rescuing others.

Shine On