The TRANSCENDENCE OF Sanddoggie

TRANSCENDENCE OF SANDDOGGIE

And

On Dan's desk inside the destroyed barracks there was a sheet of notepaper on which there was a single paw print

First of all there were four words you never used around Dan Fields -"it's just a dog", which would send him into orbit. Dan and his dog Sanddoggie were well known as outstanding handler and dog at Da Nang. There were hundreds of them but only one pair like Dan and Sanddoggie. That dog could listen, you know, and he could recognize footsteps, mechanical sounds of a weapon being readied, you name it, he knew it.

His listening abilities got him recognized as a problem solver , a regular chaplain with fur. Just go and borrow Sanddoggie for awhile, if you wanted to have a confidential chat, listen to music, use some soft fur to muffle sad sounds of crying, he was glad to oblige.

A routine patrol can be anything but, except Dan did not count on this one as he carried Sanddoggie on his shoulders as per usual on finishing their daily patrol duties, heading back to quarters. The familiar rattle of machine gun fire is a noise dreaded by all and the two of them hit the deck, Dan covering Sanddoggie. Time passed but did danger pass? He wouldn't know but going forward was the only option. "Come on Sanddoggie, climb aboard." He then noticed spots on his BDU's, red and new and he swore he himself wasn't hit. Sanddogie was dead! "That can't be! It's not true! I'm having a nightmare and I'll wake up and it'll be a nightmare!" He screamed, his face covered with tears and any other moisture that could issue from eyes, nose, mouth .

Sanddoggie was given a royal sendoff but for Dan the days and nights were a jumble, even the daily incoming mortar fire went unnoticed, but he started having a recurring dream where Sanddoggie ran ahead of him and he kept looking back at Dan to see if he was catching up, with Dan calling "wait, wait Sanddoggie."This night he actually grabbed the dream dog's fur and followed him out into the shadows just as the mortars began. There was a horrendous explosion behind him and his barracks was hit by a 140 mm. rocket exploding the quarters into fragments and dust. Had he been inside there, he would be fragments and dust. The dream dog had brought him out here. He looked at his hand. There was fur on it!

"DID YOU THINK I WOULD LEAVE YOU IN YOUR TIME OF GREAT NEED?"

Sanddoggie was a transcendent being, not "just a dog"

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