Originally posted by Duster6: SUNLINER81; Thanks for bringing me back. I was so depressed this past week. Having the flu. Having to cancel my trip to the White Mountains of NH. I just took one too many lexipro's. I'm back on track now. I just needed someone to wake me up. I love all dogs. God bless our Marines.
That's o.k. bro, I've been there and done that too. Respectfully, SUNLINER81
Originally posted by Duster6: SUNLINER81; Thanks for bringing me back. I was so depressed this past week. Having the flu. Having to cancel my trip to the White Mountains of NH. I just took one too many lexipro's. I'm back on track now. I just needed someone to wake me up. I love all dogs. God bless our Marines.
The story is heartwarming and all, but if you look deeper is not about the dog. It's about the marine, or better yet; the marines who cared for Nubs. The dog represents their hopes and dreams. It is their idol. Most importabtly it makes them human and it helps keep their sanity in the war zone. Those men get shot at everyday in Iraq. The dog is a survivor of cruelty and war is cruel. They see themselves in that dog and it gives them hope to carry on. That act of kindness helps them stay humane, rather than going insane and getting triggerhappy. The dog is a symbol, it represents the ideal these men are fighting for. Also, they want to help the Iraqis. They can only help the Iraqis if the Iraqis want to be helped. In a sense, the dog is easier to help and it does not shoot you in the back for helping him.
This story just came across the wire in my email news. I have never responded to anything or any story before but after reading this I felt I had to. I was a Marine stationed on Okinawa with 9th Engineers from late '94 to late '95. I lived outside of Camp Hanson and with a typhoon approaching I walked out of my apt. one morning for p.t. and nearly stepped on this little furry thing the size of a softball curled up trying to get out of the storm. Needless to say I brought it into the house and left it on the bed where my wife was sleeping. By the time I got home of course the puppy was now a permanent fixture. We named it after the typhoon, "Faye" and brought it back to the states with us. But the funny thing was right before the dog was to go back to the states it apparently followed me on base and while standing in formation Faye showed up with another dog with a palm branch in its mouth and layed it by my feet. Needless to say the batallion had fun with it!
This is a heartwarming story and as a dog lover, I salute everyone involved in bringing the pup to the States. There have been several other cases like this, including one just recently in the news in which a pup and his mom (Boris and Momma-dog), who were cared for by a soldier who died in Iraq, were shipped to his family as part of his legacy.
However, let us not forget that 3.5 million shelter dogs are put down every year in this country because there were no homes for them. Before people run out and pay big bucks for a so-called pure-bred AKC-registered dog from a puppy mill, I strongly encourage them to first consider a shelter dog.
