Where did you serve and what did you do?
I served as a Medic in the US Army 82nd Airborne Division, Utah Army National Guard and the Oregon Army National Guard. In that time, I was deployed to Sinai Egypt with the MultiNational Force and Observers Mission, Baghdad Iraq for OIF 2 and the Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts. I retired in 2013.
Tell us how your dog is helping you continue #StillServing in your community.
As an AKC- Canine Good Citizen and an AKC- Therapy Dog, “Mocha” volunteers with Furry Friends and South Coast Hospice to help enrich the lives of people when they are not at their best. That could not happen without her. It is funny, some folks don’t remember my name, but they never seem to forget her name “Mocha”.
Why do you do it?
There seemed to be a large void in my life after retirement and I also missed the comradery of the service. I was in a VA hospital for a while and a therapy dog came to visit once a week. I thought to myself “I would like to do that for others.” Never having a dog before, It took years, but it happened, and now Mocha and I have hundreds of visits to our credit. I would like to think that therapy dog visits have a positive impact on people’s lives.