Hero

I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your services in providing dignity and kindness for my good old boy, Hero, in his recent passing. Although losing a companion is always difficult, your professionalism and dedication ease some of the logistical burden that families must endure during difficult times. I'd like to share with you a little about Hero, so you can truly know how meaningful your care meant to me. 

Hero was born under a government contract with the specific intention of becoming a Military Working Dog (MWD). He was trained and certified as an Explosive Detection Dog (EDD) and soon deployed to Afghanistan with the Iowa National Guard. It is my understanding that although Hero did well at his assigned job, he was not deployable a second time and was therefore retired. Due to his young age, intelligence and biddability, a training facility in Iowa then retrained Hero as a Service Dog for Veterans with physical and psychological disabilities. Hero excelled at this job, but his first assigned Veteran mistreated him, and Hero had to be removed from that pairing. Hero was then reassigned to a different Veteran, this time in Wisconsin, and that pairing also did not work out, though due to no fault of Hero's. At this point, the training facility in Iowa was unable to take Hero back due to their other commitments and the decision was made to euthanize him (which absolutely boggles my mind to this day). Fortunately, a friend of mine who had heard of Hero's plight, called me to see if I could somehow intervene. Obviously, I did, and I welcomed Hero into my home within a few hours. After some hiccups with paperwork, Hero settled into his forever home, with three other dogs (at times more) and three human children. Over the years, Hero literally did nothing wrong - not even "typical" dog misbehaviors. He never stole food, toddlers climbed all over him and would easily leash walk him, he would pick up things that were dropped and place them in your hand, and was a great snuggle buddy, especially after a hard day. Hero always dedicated himself to whatever was asked of him, and I am so honored that I could dedicate myself to him for the remainder of his life. Hero was an incredible, once in a lifetime dog, and I am so grateful that he lived until 15 years and 3 months with my family. He will be dearly missed and always remembered as the Hero that he was.