Saturday, April 22, 2006

Dogs, and Odds and Ends

Don't know if I have ever mentioned, but there are two groups in Soldiers Angels supporting our military dogs, and the pets left behind when soldiers are deployed. The Guardian Angels for Soldiers Pets are those who 'foster' the dogs (or pets) of those deployed, that is a 'public' link on the Soldiers Angels forums   
 
The other group are the 'K9 Angels', you have to be a member of Soldiers Angels to join that group, but they 'adopt' the military dogs....the above picture is of one of the dogs saying 'thank you':)  Here is a description of one of the dogs:
 
"Her job is to find IED's and
stand by them until they can be disarmed. The reason she is so special is
she trained off lead to go up to a mile ahead. She carries 2 radios one is
stuck in transmit the other in receive (she can't hit the little button yet)
her boss  communicates with her via the radios and
arm signals. She understands about 10 directional commands, forward,
right, left, back etc.. She also has some head gear with goggles she wears.

They work much harder and in much worse conditions than most of us over
here.

Just thought I'd remind everyone there are more than good people working to
save lives everyday, She does what she does for pepperoni type treats and
squeaky toys. If all of us could just be so unselfish. "
 
Just another of the cool things you can do as a member of Soldiers Angels:) I first heard about the dog handlers and their dogs with the death of a soldier in January, you can click here for the Stars & Strips article about him. 
 
If you'd like to learn more about this young man in his own words? He was also listed on Anysoldier.com, and if you go to the Anysoldier site and click on "Where to Send", scroll down on that page to the black ribbon that says "Lost Anysoldier.com contacts" and he is the first soldier listed there...if you click on his name,it will take you to the postings he had on Anysoldier.com before his death (can't provide a direct link,but here's the Anysoldier.com link )  
 
In the ODDS AND ENDS department? I got TWO pieces of "Free Mail" yesterday:) Always excited to get mail back from soldiers,I say "free mail" because those deployed can send their mail without postage.They were both 'Thank you's", which I do this without ever expecting or WANTING a 'thank you', so that's why it's always so unexpected and exciting to get one!One of them said "When I get letters from home it's great. Just to know that there are people thinking of you."And the other one said,"I appreciate you taking the time to send a few nice and comforting words to me. We all appreciate the support from home."
 
Letters like these renew my spirit,and committment to continuing to write.....they always seem to arrive when I am thinking "am I really making a difference?"I say this because last night I was organizing my names from Soldiers Angels, Anysoldier.com, and Adopt A Platoon(organization NOT being one of my strengths,lol) and I realized that between letters, and cards sent to recovering wounded soldiers, and birthday and other cards sent?I have sent roughly 230 pieces of mail since July.
 
I say that NOT to toot my own horn, but because I was astonished it was so many! They don't seem like that many when you are sending them one at a time,LOL!
 
The last 'Odds and End' is about the Flight 93 movie. I was torn about whether to see it, even though I had already watched the A & E reenactment movie about it. I posted on my 'family only' blog about it, and my sister gave me some information that helped me make up my mind....part of the first weekend's gross will go to a memorial. You can read about it here  
 
So I think I'm going to see it....to honor and remember those heroes, and to help contribute to the memorial.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Kathi! You had one heck of a day! I'm so glad your accident wasn't more serious. I did hear back from JJ today about Noah Galloway, the soldier we were writing too and it was a mixup but she is passing our notes on to him so he can contact us directly.
Thanks for your prayers for my cousin. I've got to check out CJ's blog tonight after kids are in bed. I've grown my 360 friends list so large that I can't keep up with everyone now!! Thanks for offering your help also with Rob, I called home in Virginia and told them there are some people familiar with the wounded troops out that way and if they needed some help you'd be willing to take a road trip.. :) You rock Kathi!

I am going to have to read your post about these dogs also tonight. I'm astounded at the responsibility these dogs have!!  What an incredibly complex job to be a dog handler too.