SUSANNA RAAB/INSTITUTEdiscovered more than 165
kilograms of explosives and
were credited with keeping
at least 30,000 U.S., Afghan
and coalition forces safe.the united states has
deployed thousands of dogs
to combat zones. Depend-
ing on the war, their tours
have lasted months to years.
When it’s time for war dogs
to retire, the law specifies
they be released into the
care of their former han-
dlers, if possible. The sec-
ond option is “other per-
sons capable of humanely
caring for these dogs” and the third is
law-enforcement agencies.
According to Douglas Miller, the for-
mer manager of the U.S. Department of
Defense 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 on the list,” he says.
“That has now grown to about 1,200.”
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 daughter was allergic to
dogs. He said he was impressed with
how much Dyngo, usually stoical
around new people, seemed to like
me. When Dyngo laid his head in my
lap, I felt the tug of love. Kitts askedwhether I would consider taking Dyngo
when he was set to retire.
For me, adopting Dyngo would mean
adopting new schedules, responsibili-
ties and costs, including a move to a
larger, more expensive, dog-friendly
apartment. The list of reasons to say
no was inarguably long. Even so, over
time, that little feeling tugged harder.
I weighed all the pros and cons and
then disregarded the cons.“you sound scared.”
I’d called Kitts as soon as I heard
Dyngo growl. He counselled me
through that first night back in D.C.,
and intuited that Dyngo needed a
crate to feel safe. My friend Claire had
a spare one and helped me put it
together. We’d barely had the door inRebecca Frankel formed a bond with Dyngo in 2012
while researching a book about war dogs.reader’s digest
42 may 2020