It turned out that Dyngo’s nose had
been spot-on. There were IEDs buried
in both places. The insurgents had
planned to box the unit into the grape
field and attack them there.
Altogether, during their nine months
in Afghanistan, Kitts and Dyngo spent
more than 1,000 hours patrolling. They
discovered more than 370 pounds of
explosives. The military credited them
with keeping more than 30,000 U.S.,
Afghan, and coalition forces safe.T
he United States has deployed
thousands of dogs to combat
zones. Depending on the war,
their tours have lasted months toyears. When it’s time for
war dogs to retire, the
law specifies that they
should be released into
the care of their former
handlers, if possible.
The second option is
law-enforcement agen-
cies, and the third is
“other persons capable
of humanely caring for
these dogs.”
According to Douglas
Miller, the former man-
ager of the DOD Military
Working Dog program,
retired war dogs are in
higher demand than
they were a decade ago.
“When I first took this
job, in 2009, there were
about 150 people maybe
on the list,” he says. “That list has now
grown to about 1,200 or more people.”
But not every civilian anticipates the
adjustments the dogs will have to make.
When we met, Kitts told me he’d
always hoped he could bring Dyngo
home, but his oldest daughter was
allergic to dogs. He commented that
he was impressed with how much
Dyngo, usually stoic around new
people, seemed to like me. When he
laid his head in my lap, I felt the tug
of love. Kitts asked whether I would
consider taking Dyngo when he was
set to retire.
For me, adopting Dyngo would
mean adopting new schedules,WHEN WE MET, DYNGO SEEMED
TO LIKE ME. HE LAID HIS HEAD IN MY
LAP, AND I FELT THE TUG OF LOVE.The author and
Dyngo at home in
Washington, DC90 september 2019
Reader’s Digest
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