[Vision2020] Just Doggone Good Fortune

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today’s (December 24, 2010) Spokesman-Review.

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Vet reunited with dogs he gave up when he joined up
Chelsea Bannach The Spokesman-Review

A reunion between a former soldier and his two long-lost friends – beagles
named Bullet and Trigger – was not short on slobbery kisses, wagging tails
and treats Thursday.

Since they parted in 2004, Raymond Behrens, 24, served as a Navy Seabee in
Japan, Iraq and twice in Afghanistan. When he enlisted, he begrudgingly
gave up the two dogs, which he got when he was 16.
Six years later, he has his dogs back.

The reunion came about because earlier this week Behrens looked at some
animal adoption ads online. He was done with his military service and
thought it was a good time to get another four-legged friend.

On one site, he saw a couple of dogs that looked just like his old dogs.

His first reaction: “There’s no way those could be my dogs.”

But they looked the same. The names were the same. The town they were
located in was the same. And the dogs were brother and sister, just like
his.

So he got out the photos he had saved of Bullet and Trigger.

“I started comparing pictures I had with what was on there,” he said.

And he was stunned. He could tell by the markings they were the same dogs
he had given up for adoption in 2004.

“It was too much coincidence for them not to be my dogs,” he said.

His next reaction: “I gotta get these guys before someone else gets them.”

He immediately contacted the agency that had the dogs and eagerly waited
while the adoption process was completed.

“I could hardly sleep for two and a half days,” he said. “I just wanted to
bring them home now.”

An anonymous donor heard the story and paid the $180 adoption fee, in
appreciation of Behrens’ military service.

He said he was heartbroken when he had to give the dogs up, but he didn’t
see any other options.

“I was really sad,” he said. “I didn’t want to get rid of my dogs. It felt
like they knew I was getting rid of them. They weren’t just pets.”

A couple adopted the dogs from Behrens’ mother in 2004. Luckily for
Behrens, the couple was moving and having a baby and had to give the dogs
up for adoption again.

The dogs had been in foster care with Lynne Nostrant, a Second Chance Pet
Rescue volunteer, for about three weeks.

“I think it’s just very special that this happened,” Nostrand said of the
reunion. “The timing just worked out perfectly.”

Once reunited, Behrens and the dogs barely missed a beat; he said they
seemed to remember him, though Trigger was a bit shy at first.

He did not seem too surprised at the dogs’ warm greeting – they had always
been lovers.

He initially got the dogs to hunt rabbits with him, so Bullet and Trigger
seemed like appropriate names, he said. As it turned out, the dogs were
pacifists.

When Behrens first got them, he put them in a rabbit’s pen, but the dogs’
reaction was less than aggressive.

“They were scared of the rabbit,” he said. “They didn’t hunt long. They
became my lap dogs.”

Since he last saw the dogs, Behrens got married and became a dad, but he
said his long-lost friends will be a welcome addition to the family.

“All that moving around and they made it back,” he said. “I thought I
would never see them again. I don’t know how it happened.”

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Bullet, foreground, and Trigger, have been in foster care since the couple
who adopted them in 2004 had to give them up because of a move and a new
baby.

http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/12/24/24beagles2_t620.jpg

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Ray Behrens, his wife, Kaci, and son, Danyole, 2, meet Bullet, left, and
Trigger, right, the two beagles given up by Behrens six years ago when he
went into the military.

http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2010/12/24/24beagles1_t620.jpg

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Happy Holidays, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Kellogg, Idaho