They save human lives, protect livelihoods and yet have nowhere to go when they are decommissioned from active field service in the minefields of Cambodia.

 

These days I get emotional very often. It is so unlike me; in school I had a nickname “ice queen” for not expressing my emotions easily and even my partner often said that my heart must have been made of “stone” because I never cried, even in the most intense moments. Yet, when I started working with animals, building projects to help and make things better for them, I realised I get so overwhelmed that I choke up.

 

Monday night was one of those moments for me when I choked up in public. I was presenting at the famous Nerd Night, in Score Bar, in front of hundreds of folks about my passionate project – Home of Heroes – inspired by one dog I met almost two years ago, a retired explosives detection dog named Muriel. Muriel, then a 9 year-old Belgian Milionis lived with a family that adopted her after her retirement. Retirement from what, you might ask?

 

read more http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50102902/retired-demining-dogs/

 

 

-- © Copyright Khmer Times 19/01

 

Man I am sitting here with tears in my eyes just reading this.I love dogs passionately and one of my bad memories in in my life was having to have my pet/farm work dog put down because of cancer.When I retired and then lost my wife I wanted to some sort of job in NZ even unpaid just to keep me occupied but could find nothing.I wish I had seen this those many yrs ago, I would have been over the moon.What fantastic creatures. I am now 81 yrs old,amd although still with little health problems I am now totally committed to a whole new life in Thailand.I wish you all the best of luck with this new venture.This is a wonderful thing to do for these beautiful creatures. Sorry I have little money to live on myself but I ask for little.Good luck to you my friend .I will be thinking of you. Dougal

Just as a quickie I forgot--------- Your last bit about that dog afraid of thunder and climbing into bed------ That really got to me as I know I have done the same  thing for an injured dog/friend,and that brought on the tears and the memories---------- Dougal

Can they get a retirement visa for Thailand and live with the soi dogs?