Veteran’s Day: a dog-lover’s special

Soldiers returning home after months of absence and greeted by their loving canines. Prepare to choke up in three … two …

In our first clip, Gracie welcomes her dad, who has returned from Afghanistan.

Buddy can’t contain his enthusiasm after seven months apart from his owner.

I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anything make a sound quite like this. How great are dogs?

We’ve posted this incredible clip before—dogs greeting a soldier after 14 months in Iraq. Worth watching again.

Basset hound Reggie welcomes his best friend home from Afghanistan.

Rocky gives his favorite soldier the welcome home he deserves.

From the YouTube description: “Soldier daddy comes home after a month of training, and the pups go ballistic!”

This boxer was cautious at first, but that caution was quickly replaced by excessive jubilation.

Dachshunds Franklin and Sally give a vocal welcome to their dad, a U.S. Navy man returning from an eight-month deployment to Kuwait. (According to the YouTube description, Franklin and Sally are both rescue dogs. If this video has put you in a dachshund-adopting mood, contact Southern States Dachshund Rescue at ssdr.org or Dachshund Rescue of North America at drna.org.)

This soldier is attacked (and nearly hurdled) by his pups.

Not a dog person? We’ll end with a compilation of returning soldiers surprising their kids at school. Powerful, powerful stuff.

* * * * *
On this Veterans Day eve, here’s hoping all our men and women serving overseas get to come home soon. And when they do, I hope they all get equally enthusiastic greetings—from dogs and cats, sons and daughters, significant others, parents, neighbors, friends, and grateful strangers.

Same here.

God damn, I want a dog. So badly. A cat is nice, but it really isn’t comparable as far as interactivity and emotional bonds go.

(via The Agitator)
Technorati tags: dogs · soldiers · Iraq War · War in Afghanistan · cute · funny