Free Vintage Clip Art - Sweet Little Dog with Bow

Ahhhhhh.....What a sweet little guy

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I see this kind of dog all the time.  A sweet little lap dog friend and a great companion dog.

I have been learning recently about service dogs for our returning troops.  We have all heard the stories about the highest suicide rate ever of our returning soldiers.  These soldiers volunteered to go to Iraq and Afghanistan and they are coming home without limbs and psychological issues because of their service.  

Organizations have been taking dogs into veteran's hospitals in an effort to cheer up soldiers who are returning home, now disabled and face a very different future than they had imagined.  These programs bringing the dogs together with the soldiers has been very successful.

Another program I am just learning about is service dogs for our soldiers.  So many have suffered psychological damage that our government is just not addressing.  Soldiers are experiencing severe depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and now face lifelong disabilities.  Organizations are springing up all over the country that are trying to address these issues with the help of dogs.

These organizations adopt dogs from shelters and rescue organizations and train these dogs to be service dogs for returning solders.  Wow, what a great mission!  First of all, this saves a wonderful dog and gives him/her a job, a purpose in life and profoundly changes the lives of returning soldiers.  Soldiers who are either disabled, suffering from psychological issues or who are otherwise just having a tough time of adjusting to life back home.

In the spirit of the season, I would encourage everyone to search out these non-profit organizations that rescue dogs that in turn rescue veterans in need and give a donation.  We all have people on our gift list that have everything and are very hard to buy for.  Why not give a donation to one of these nonprofit organziations that are doing such great work on behalf of dogs and veterans in the name of that hard to buy for person on your list?

I think it's a fabulous idea.  I just did a google search with the words "dogs, returning soldiers" and several of these nonprofit organizations came up.