I spend a good bit of $ for salmon dog food

[pinboy3niner]

9. Many years after the war I became best friends with a guy who'd served as a dog handler in Vietnam

He can't talk about his dog, 'Orion,' without tearing up.

In those days military dogs were left behind in-country. In a way, it was a mercy to my friend to learn, decades later, from later dog handlers that Orion, who had survived combat wounds, died quickly in a freak occurrence and was not left behind.

One year when I traveled back to D.C. for veterans holiday observances at the Wall, I bought a statuette of the Three Servicemen statue. On my return home, I searched for several weeks for a proportionate dog figurine to add to it. Then I found and printed out the insignia of my friend's scout dog unit and made it into a bandanna that I fixed around the dog figurine's neck.

My friend loved the statue when I gave it to him and he proudly displayed it in his office.