[Vision2020] Just Doggone Good Fortune

[lfalen]

I provided veterinary care to the US Army Dog Training Center at Lingreses(sp), Germany(1962-63). there were several people who brought their dogs home with them.
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Tom Hansen" thansen at moscow.com
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2010 08:48:30 -0800
To: "Moscow Vision 2020" vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Just Doggone Good Fortune

> Courtesy of today’s (December 24, 2010) Spokesman-Review.
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Vet reunited with dogs he gave up when he joined up
> Chelsea Bannach The Spokesman-Review
> 
> A reunion between a former soldier and his two long-lost friends – beagles
> named Bullet and Trigger – was not short on slobbery kisses, wagging tails
> and treats Thursday.
> 
> Since they parted in 2004, Raymond Behrens, 24, served as a Navy Seabee in
> Japan, Iraq and twice in Afghanistan. When he enlisted, he begrudgingly
> gave up the two dogs, which he got when he was 16.
> Six years later, he has his dogs back.
> 
> The reunion came about because earlier this week Behrens looked at some
> animal adoption ads online. He was done with his military service and
> thought it was a good time to get another four-legged friend.
> 
> On one site, he saw a couple of dogs that looked just like his old dogs.
> 
> His first reaction: “There’s no way those could be my dogs.”
> 
> But they looked the same. The names were the same. The town they were
> located in was the same. And the dogs were brother and sister, just like
> his.
> 
> So he got out the photos he had saved of Bullet and Trigger.
> 
> “I started comparing pictures I had with what was on there,” he said.
> 
> And he was stunned. He could tell by the markings they were the same dogs
> he had given up for adoption in 2004.
> 
> “It was too much coincidence for them not to be my dogs,” he said.
> 
> His next reaction: “I gotta get these guys before someone else gets them.”
> 
> He immediately contacted the agency that had the dogs and eagerly waited
> while the adoption process was completed.
> 
> “I could hardly sleep for two and a half days,” he said. “I just wanted to
> bring them home now.”
> 
> An anonymous donor heard the story and paid the $180 adoption fee, in
> appreciation of Behrens’ military service.
> 
> He said he was heartbroken when he had to give the dogs up, but he didn’t
> see any other options.
> 
> “I was really sad,” he said. “I didn’t want to get rid of my dogs. It felt
> like they knew I was getting rid of them. They weren’t just pets.”
> 
> A couple adopted the dogs from Behrens’ mother in 2004. Luckily for
> Behrens, the couple was moving and having a baby and had to give the dogs
> up for adoption again.
> 
> The dogs had been in foster care with Lynne Nostrant, a Second Chance Pet
> Rescue volunteer, for about three weeks.
> 
> “I think it’s just very special that this happened,” Nostrand said of the
> reunion. “The timing just worked out perfectly.”
> 
> Once reunited, Behrens and the dogs barely missed a beat; he said they
> seemed to remember him, though Trigger was a bit shy at first.
> 
> He did not seem too surprised at the dogs’ warm greeting – they had always
> been lovers.
> 
> He initially got the dogs to hunt rabbits with him, so Bullet and Trigger
> seemed like appropriate names, he said. As it turned out, the dogs were
> pacifists.
> 
> When Behrens first got them, he put them in a rabbit’s pen, but the dogs’
> reaction was less than aggressive.
> 
> “They were scared of the rabbit,” he said. “They didn’t hunt long. They
> became my lap dogs.”
> 
> Since he last saw the dogs, Behrens got married and became a dad, but he
> said his long-lost friends will be a welcome addition to the family.
> 
> “All that moving around and they made it back,” he said. “I thought I
> would never see them again. I don’t know how it happened.”
> 
> -------------------------------
> 
> Bullet, foreground, and Trigger, have been in foster care since the couple
> who adopted them in 2004 had to give them up because of a move and a new
> baby.
> 
> http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/12/24/24beagles2_t620.jpg
> 
> -------------------------------
> 
> Ray Behrens, his wife, Kaci, and son, Danyole, 2, meet Bullet, left, and
> Trigger, right, the two beagles given up by Behrens six years ago when he
> went into the military.
> 
> http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/12/24/24beagles1_t620.jpg
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Happy Holidays, Moscow.
> 
> Tom Hansen
> Kellogg, Idaho
> 
> 
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