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The story of how dogs

came to be humankind's
closest companions is,

well, complicated.

They started out as wolves,

all of them.

Every terrier, and Pug.

Every hound.

And every Dachshund can trace their DNA

back to wild wolves.

Even my lab, Molly.

I swear, there was a
wolf in there somewhere.

Molly was with my family for 11 years.

And while I promise you that there was

no dog on earth like my Molly,

she was actually pretty typical.

Like all dogs, she played.

She barked.

Let 'em know they're not welcome.

She liked mud.

Boy did she like mud.

Your turn to clean the dog.

She loved.

Dogs love.

Unconditionally and without reservation.

Social media was seemingly created

so millions of people across the globe

could share that love.

If you gain a dog's trust,

they'll show you how they feel about you

every moment of every day.

It's astounding.

And that love is the proof
of our bond with them.

Even though we are two
very different species.

Over more than 10,000
years, human civilization

has developed with dogs at our side,

every step of the way.

They protect us.

They hunt with us.

They herd our livestock.

They keep us company.

They rescue us.

There's no life that can't be made better,

by the love of a dog.

I've always had dogs and some cats

and some hamsters, but mainly dogs.

It was something natural in me

that I always wanted to
pick up every stray I saw

and help out any animal in need.

For Jenn, it wasn't

a passing childhood passion.

She continued welcoming strays

into her home through adulthood.

I foster senior dogs
so they stay with me

until they pass away.

I like 'em 'cause they're so calm,

and they're mellow and I just feel bad

that their owners are dumping them

usually because they're old and the owners

don't want to take care of them anymore

and to me, that's heartbreaking.

I think we should take
care of the senior dogs

and let 'em die in peace.

With love.

Let's go, let's go!

Meet Ryan and Jenn.

A very special couple
who rescue senior dogs

that have been abandoned.

You have to let
go of the spoon, buddy.

Good job Rocky.

Taking care of senior dogs

is not for the faint hearted
and it's a lot of work.

Plus, having a lot of
senior dogs in the house

is not exactly a boyfriend magnet.

How was it for you Ryan?

On our first date, I
was scared of the dogs.

You were
afraid of all the dogs?

Actually when
we first started dating,

I had a Boxer that I had adopted--

And I went inside--

She tried to bite him in the crotch.

She jumped in the air and was

going for his crotch.

So I went...

So he knew exactly
what he was stepping into.

He started taking care of my dogs

and helping me.

I knew he was a good catch

'cause if he could deal
with a paralyzed dog,

then that's good.

So how does it work?

Are you two rescuing or
adopting senior dogs, or both?

Well there's not
a lot of rescue groups

that will save senior
dogs because they don't

get adopted usually.

And then there's not a lot of fosters

that are willing to
take in the senior dogs

because it is heartbreaking.

I cry every time they die.

She sad, but she's not upset like me.

I think it would be better

for a dog to die in our care

than to be killed alone in a shelter

and so I love rescuing senior dogs.

I just have to say you two

are such brave hearts.

But it must also take true
grit to be doing this.

Yeah.

We had a Boxer and we were told

that he had a severe heart problem

and he probably only had
a few months to live.

One day he collapsed in our kitchen

and I heard Ryan screaming and I ran

into the kitchen and Ryan was giving

him CPR, and mouth-to-mouth.

Yeah.

I guess you're supposed
to go through the nose,

I didn't know that.

But he came back to life.

He lived for like a year
and a half with love.

But then some bad news came.

Unfair news.

The kind you dread.

In October of 2013,
Ryan was diagnosed with cancer.

He had three different surgeries

and he went through radiation treatment

and then he was cleared of cancer.

During that time we had dogs

and we continued to keep our dogs

and then in April of 2015,

we found out that his cancer was back.

The prognosis wasn't very good.

He was gonna go through
radiation and chemo again.

We decided since we had so much going on,

that we were not going
to bring any more dogs

into our house.

I also feed the cat.

While you can imagine

in this household, some rules were made

to be broken.

I got a message
from a friend of mine.

She sent me a picture of Harley.

His family had dumped him and the shelter

labeled him as too
aggressive to be adopted

by the general public.

He had 24 hours to take
him out of the shelter

or he would be killed.

I was kind of
like I don't know about

bringing another dog in.

The stuff I was going through at the time.

If I had the energy.

But this is my second
time going through cancer

and the first time, I was
taking care of dogs too

and didn't want the dog
to die in the shelter.

So of course, Jenn and Ryan

took Harley in.

But they had some trepidation

as Harley was deemed too
aggressive for adoption.

The very first day
that Harley came to the house,

Ryan walked out and it was like

in the movies, in slow motion,

they stared at each other and
ran into each other's arms.

It was instantly love.

Harley just came up to me

and he's just staring at
me and I'm staring at him.

They were meant
to be in each other's life.

And he definitely was not aggressive

but he could care less about me.

Harley
was definitely Ryan's dog

from the very beginning.

You silly boy.

I had to do radiation treatment

five days a week for seven weeks.

And every time I came home from that,

Harley's so excited to see me,

he'd jump on me, put
his paw on my shoulder.

In general, the discomfort

of radiation can be easier
to handle than chemotherapy.

But in Ryan's case, the opposite was true.

In addition, the prescribed chemo regiment

also came with a slew of side effects.

The first time
I did chemotherapy,

I got very sick

and I wasn't eating and
I was throwing up a lot.

Harley seemed concerned and he would lay

next to me when I was feeling at my worst.

He was there for me.

He wanted his
daddy to feel better

and get healthy.

We would hound Ryan every single day

that he needs to try to eat something

and he needs to drink
and Ryan wouldn't do it.

He dropped down to 134 pounds.

He's 6'4" so

that's incredibly skinny.

But one day he made a promise to Harley

that he was gonna eat every single day

and he wouldn't break that promise.

Eventually, Ryan got stronger

and Ryan was feeling better.

That's because of Harley.

Whenever Ryan
was having a hard time,

Harley would give him kisses

and try to get him up and moving.

Or sometimes he would just cuddle with him

and give Ryan that support

and I have to work full-time

because I still have to
financially take care of

the dogs and Ryan and myself.

Harley definitely has changed his life,

give him a reason to want to live again.

Ryan will go swim laps

and Harley runs around the pool barking.

He's so protective.

He's like a life saver

because I could have gone
downhill and he was always there.

Ryan's skateboarding, doing all

the things that he enjoys
doing and living his life

to the fullest as long as he can.

Living life to the fullest,

as long as we can.

Isn't that what we all aspire to?

And having a furry friend around

makes it that much better.

Maybe I felt
like he needed me too.

Harley's good for her too because

she's living this with me, so

it's hard on her so
Harley's there for her also.

Yeah.

It's good, dogs are good.

I always call her my angel.

Ever since we started dating,

he called me his angel,

before he was diagnosed.

Because she'd
take care of the dogs.

I thought, these dogs
must think she's an angel.

She ends up taking care of me,

then she was definitely my angel.

The dogs are probably angels too.

So they're just all my angels.

Harley is like
the dog version of Ryan.

By December of 2015, sadly,

Ryan's health deteriorated
and he was overcome

by a deep depression.

But Jenn had an epiphany as their annual

Christmas vacation with her parents

in Hawaii was nearing.

I went to Ryan and I said I think

we should get married when we're in Hawaii

and I didn't realize it but
Ryan was actually asleep

when I blurted that out and so he opened

his eyes and he said,
"I would love for you

"to be my wife."

I will forever
remember watching Ryan's

expression when he saw
Jenn coming down the aisle.

And I have some amazing memories with them

and all of us together as a family.

From the point
they said he had three

to 10 months, he lived 26 months.

So when we got married, we celebrated

the 30th of every single month

because we never imagined that we were

gonna get that one year anniversary.

A big part of Ryan's ability

to push through was the unwavering support

of his close high school buddies.

We wouldn't have to even say anything,

a lot of times.

We'd just be around each
other watching Laker games

or listening to Punk Rock
music or skateboarding.

And so, we just acted like

everything was fine, you know?

We were just happy being together,

just the posse, you know?

So against all odds,

Ryan lived another two years,

thanks to the love of friends and family

and of course, Jenn, his
wife and beloved Harley.

He knows.

Harley could
smell Ryan before he was even

close to the room.

He knew he was gonna go see his dad.

They just had a special bond.

And Harley will just forever be

special to us.

He made Ryan more lively, you know,

'cause the dog was real happy
around him and everything.

I think that's what dogs
do to you, you know?

They bring out the life in you.

A few days
before Ryan passed,

he expressed a wish to have his ashes

scattered in various places.

We drove to Montana
and we spread his ashes

in the Clark River.

This is a journey we must all take

when each must go alone

as a part of God's plan,

I step on the road to home.

I love you Ryan.

Love you Ryan.

We went to Utah,
where his dad is buried

and we buried some of
his ashes with his dad.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Amen.

And then from
there we drove to Seattle.

We had his ashes put into these beautiful

glass memorials.

He had drawn so
many of them in his journals

where he wrote poems and songs

and just his feelings.

Sometimes he would include his initials

in the middle and swirl it in together

and it looked a lot like these.

He didn't want us putting
him in a little urn

and having it on our mantle.

He wanted a beautiful piece of art

for us to remember him that way.

Sit.

Shake.

Today, Jenn
has three senior dogs

under her care.

Harley.
- Sit.

Murphy.

And Rocky.

A 15 year old Pit Bull who's lost function

of his back legs and can no longer walk.

Rocky is having
difficulty with his eating

and his drinking which we just attribute

to him getting old.

Even if he's losing a
little bit of his dignity,

as long as he's happy
and he's not suffering

then I have no problem helping him out.

How about Harley?

It must be so comforting for both of you

to have each other.

The day that Ryan passed,

Harley was just so, so upset

that he knew I was hurting,

so he came over to me and put his paw

on my lap and was staring at me

and since then, Harley's
focus turned to me.

I feel that Ryan's here.

I feel that he's around
me and so I feel like

any time I need to talk to him,

I tell him about the dogs all the time,

to get him to help me
out from the spirit world

and since butterflies were
really meaningful to Ryan,

any time I see a butterfly,
I saw I love you, for Ryan.

Harley is proof that no dog

is a lost cause.

But when a dog disappears, love takes on

a whole new mission.

My name's Alexandra
Melnick and I'm coming

to you guys because I need help.

I need help trying to find my service dog.

When Alex lost her beloved

German Shepherd, Kai,
she lost her partner,

her child and her best friend all at once.

My life has been lost and chaotic

and a mess without him.

I spend my days searching for him,

every second of the
day's passing out fliers

it's searching leads, it's going on foot

in the rain and trying to find him.

He is not just my pet,
but he is the person

that I wake up to in the morning.

He is the reason I wake up in the morning.

He's all that I have and
now I don't have that

and I feel like my world is falling apart.

Kai, come here.

Good boy.

Speak (barking).

One more, speak (barking).

Good boy.

Sit.

High five.

Good boy.

Kai, shake.

Good boy.

Good boy.

Roll over.

Keep going, keep going.

Good boy.

Stand, good boy.

Say bye Kai (barking).

Good boy.

My bond with Kai
was an instant feeling.

When I held him, I felt like he

was already a part of me.

It was just, I'm gonna love you

for the rest of my life.

I got Kai to help me cope.

When I came back from Afghanistan,

I was officially diagnosed with PTSD.

For me, it was night terrors, nightmares

and always looking and scanning around,

being hyper vigilant.

Hello Kai.

You falling asleep?

Mommy woke you up, huh?

I love you baby.

When the depression hits so bad

when you can't even leave the house,

know your dog is there to be able

to get you up and get you going.

But Kai gets me every time.

He wakes me up.

When I have nightmares, licking my feet,

my hands, my face, my neck and he kind

of just would pull me out of it.

We were inseparable.

Kai was just the best thing in my life.

Kai went missing Thanksgiving, 2014,

when he was a year and a half.

I couldn't imagine he
was deliberately stolen.

It was Thanksgiving.

It was a last minute trip
to go visit some family.

They lived like four hours away.

I decided to leave Kai at home.

He had food and water
and one of my friends

was stopping in to check on him.

You didn't
need your service dog

at all times?

Yes, but when it's family,

I'm going somewhere where I feel safe.

She left Kai in the house
with the backdoor open

with water and food.

And then I went over on Thanksgiving day,

checked on Kai and took
him for a little walk

around the neighborhood,
played Frisbee with him,

made sure there's food, water, everything

and he was a happy camper.

She took a picture for me

and he was fine.

We didn't expect anything to happen.

I was planning
on coming in the morning,

go see Kai again the
day after Thanksgiving,

but I didn't wake up.

We had a little bit too
much fun on Thanksgiving,

so I didn't wake up til a little later.

I went over like 4 p.m. or something.

Got the key from the back
gate where she had hidden it

and then went in the back and
I couldn't find Kai anywhere.

I mean I looked in every door, cranny,

bathtub, everywhere in her house,

hoping that Kai was going to
be right around the corner.

I remember sitting down on the stairs

and praying about it and just wishing

he would just show right up because

a big part of me thought it was my fault.

It was about 6
p.m. when I found out.

I was driving back and I
was two hours from home.

Not knowing where he is,

not knowing what's going on,

you know I think the fear of the unknown

was the worst because here,

my good friend's saying
that he's not in the house

and she's really the
only one with the key.

I don't even know what
to think at this point.

I actually was in my pajamas

when I went over there.

It was at least two or three hours

looking around for Kai, just assuming

he must have jumped the fence that's gated

but it's four or five feet tall.

He's a service dog but he
still needed some training.

He was still young and energetic.

I thought maybe he's wandering
around the neighborhood.

But I couldn't find him,

I couldn't find him anywhere.

That night, I get
home and I get a flashlight

and I start knocking on
all my neighbors' doors.

I'm looking in backyards,

I'm just pleading with them,

asking "have you seen my dog?

"Have you seen my dog?
Have you seen my dog?"

It wasn't
long before Alex's plea

for help got noticed.

A Marine who served her country

in Afghanistan is frantically searching

for her beloved German Shepherd.

Kai disappeared on
Friday and now his owner

is on a new mission.

10 News reporter Alison
Ash has the lengths

that Marine is willing to
go to to get her dog back.

Have you sene a German
Shepherd runnin' around?

Not a
single person is missed

or a single utility pole
as Alexandra Melnick

searches for this 90 pound
German Shepherd named Kai.

I didn't know who she was,

I didn't know who Kai was.

I saw her story in the news.

It's like missing
your husband, your wife,

your actual child.

He's the closest thing to a child I had

and I just need him home.

So I went to her Facebook page

and it just broke my heart.

Just seeing the love
that she has for this dog

and he's completely gone missing.

He's a big dog so for him
to be out in the street

and no one notices him or picked him up,

it was just like, it
didn't make sense to me.

I had to find a way to help her.

So I reached out to her via Facebook,

through the Bring Kai Home page

just to kind of offer my assistance

in any way that she needed it.

Hey guys, Alexandra Melnick here.

As you know, I'm missing my
beloved German Shepherd, Kai,

and I need your help

to help me get him back.

I'm right by Walgreens,
right at the meeting point.

Bobier and North Santa Fe
and I just bought a Sharpie.

I just bought some poster boards

and I have a butt load of fliers.

What I'm thinking about doing

is putting the fliers on the poster boards

and then writing "Missing" and standing

on the corners of these streets

to get people to notice
that my dog's missing.

So I need your help to come out here,

bring your family, bring your friends,

find my dog.

I really need your help.

Thank you so much.

With the help
of her new teammate, Kenelma,

and total strangers who responded

to Alex's plea on Facebook,

fliers and posters in multiple languages

were plastered all over
North San Diego County.

Hi everyone, Alexandra Melnick here.

We are at Bobier and North Santa Fe

at the Walgreens.

We are raising awareness for Kai.

What kind of poster do you guys have here?

Missing dog poster.

Missing dog poster, nice.

And where did you guys
first hear about Kai?

Sheri's project.

On Facebook and I felt
compelled to come out.

To Alex's surprise,

word of Kai's disappearance

resonated for folks on Facebook

spreading beyond her local community.

People from all across the country

responded with messages
of support and kindness.

Originally I
started the Facebook page

not really knowing what it will do.

I didn't know if anybody would even care

that my dog was missing.

My goal is to reach out to everyone

I possibly could to say,
"Yes, he is missing.

"He is loved, he's
chipped, he's well groomed,

"He's cared for."

"He is everything to me."

It's just like a child being kidnapped.

This was her baby and
you just don't give up.

Alex's plea
on Facebook resonated

with another good Samaritan who lived

only 20 minutes away.

Andrea joined the Bring Kai
Home team without hesitation.

I just became involved.

I kept looking for postings
on missing German Shepherds,

I went on Craigslist.

I kept looking out like maybe I can see

Kai running across the road,
just keeping an eye out.

It was just in me to
help bring this dog home.

The search for Kai kept going

with the help of local TV news

who were partial to Alex's story

as Southern California is home

to the Marine Corps' largest

West Coast training
facility, Camp Pendleton.

The search
continues in the North County

tonight for a missing service dog.

The German Shepherd belongs to a former

Camp Pendleton Marine,
who served in Afghanistan.

He soothes my anxiety.

I not only need my best
friend and my dog back,

but I need my service dog back.

I need him to go through the day,

going in public places.

It's a hard thing to explain

because everybody's different

but for me it was going out in public.

You never know who's gonna creep up

behind you, what your reaction's gonna be

and without a service dog, it's something

that's almost unbearable.

Kai, for me, was the
safety net that I needed.

He always had my back.

PTSD is less about what happened in war

and more about re-entry.

The symptoms of it can wax and wane

so you can look fine for a while

and think you're fine, and then

all of a sudden it comes back again.

In this country, twice
as many women as men

experience post traumatic stress disorder.

Over 1,000
miles north of San Diego,

news of Kai's disappearance
touched a new supporter

who would later join Alex's team

looking for Kai.

I come from an Army family.

My dad was in the Army, my nephew

and I have an enormous amount of respect

of people who serve and I have a huge love

for dogs to begin with.

It was just a heart wrenching story

about how Kai rescued
her and she needed to

rescue Kai and then I saw these pictures

of Alex in her fatigues
and in her military dress

with Kai next to her

and the ones that really stuck in my head

were her in her combat fatigues

with her full battle dress sort of look.

I was thinking, wow, right.

Women in Afghanistan.

That is amazing.

And the story was so amazingly compelling

that I thought, this woman, she deserves

whatever help I could give to her.

And we have a stark reminder tonight

of the dangers faced by
US forces in Afghanistan

even as the American mission
there starts to wind down.

It happened in Helmand
Province as US troops

responded to an attack by Taliban gunmen.

When Alex was
deployed in Afghanistan,

I was always worried about
her in the back of my head.

Not hearing from her was just unnerving.

At some point, you just
trust that she's gonna be safe.

I just really didn't
think about it so much.

I kind of relied on Rob to be the one

who was uneasy about it.

In August,
2011, Alex was deployed

to Musa Qala in Helmand
Province, Afghanistan,

with the motor transport unit attached

to 2/4, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines.

2/4 was part of the US
led coalition forces

Operation Enduring Freedom.

Motor T's a supporting unit

for the other smaller
forward operating bases

in the area.

When Alex
enlisted in the Marine Corps

in 2009, she was only 19 years old.

Friends and family were
surprised because she

was well on her way to getting a degree

in aeronautical engineering
when she dropped everything.

It was a spur of the moment decision

and woke up one morning thinking my life

has got to change.

I need something else.

I really had a longing for being a part

of something that was bigger than myself.

It wasn't something that
I thought about before.

It wasn't something that I dreamed of

but it was something
that I was dead set on.

It wasn't a surprise to me that she

had joined the Marine Corps.

I'm thinking more Air Force, you know.

Something a little less
in the line of fire.

But that's just not my daughter.

Nobody really believed
that I had it in me to go.

It's a definitely tough thing,

going through Marine Corps boot camp

and I came out alive
and I came out tougher

than I have ever been.

Meanwhile,
Kai was now missing

2 1/2 weeks without any real clue.

Alex was getting more desperate.

Alex posted on Kai's Facebook page,

"Please search wherever you are.

"He could be anywhere."

Christmas was nearing

and folks as far as
Colorado and New Jersey

were responding to the
search for Kai via Facebook.

Alex had some
very strong supporters

who were contacting her frequently.

But if we were seriously
going to be that effective,

we needed to be in
contact with each other,

even though we were strangers.

And that's when Team Kai formed.

We were just basically brainstorming.

Managing the page, trying
to get the word out.

That was out main goal.

I would do this
from ten o'clock at night

to four o'clock in the morning.

We would constantly be online,

that's how determined we were.

People were flooding

Kai's Facebook page with leads.

We would
probably have 100 messages

at the end of each day.

And some of them would be actual leads,

some would just be asking
how the search was going,

if we had any progress.

We were all administrators

on Kai's page and so we can see oh good,

somebody has replied to this person about

a dog being found here or was seen roaming

in a certain area.

I would
personally go to the shelter

every other day to see
if someone had found him

on the street and turned him in.

There were so many leads.

I'm sure more than 50
that just didn't turn out

to be Kai.

But whenever we would get a lead,

Alex would go right away.

And she didn't give up.

While so many
leads ended in disappointment,

less than a month after Kai disappeared,

one lead in particular
got everyone's hopes up.

I was in someone's,
basically someone's backyard,

I was following up on every single lead.

It had just been raining, it was muddy

and I was searching for Kai.

My emotions were so haywire,

but my Marine Corps instincts kicked in

and I just had to keep searching.

I would ride the trails by our house

searching for him at
night with a flashlight

because he loves chasing light.

so I figured if he's
there and it's dark out,

I have a flashlight and
that'll reel him in.

I'll hear some movement.

And so that night,

I was by myself and I got a text message

and I'm staring at my phone

and I was like wow, that's him.

That's Kai.

The dog had spots on their tongue,

it was a male.

The coloring was the same,
everything was the same

about this dog.

It was him.

Like it really was him, like it was him.

I packed up my car, I
put his bed in there.

I got it all ready to go

and I was going to pick him up.

It's a
suspenseful wait outside

of the Riverside County Animal Shelter.

Alexandra Melnick drove two hours

to Thousand Palms to see for herself,

is her beloved German Shepherd Kai inside?

I am so nervous.

It has to be him.

It just has to be him.

After all the agony and hard work

and all the devastation, I can't believe

that it's really happening.

Kai, my baby.

Hi.

Baby Kai, it's you.

Hi.

It's him, it's him.

So many similar traits

and big kisses, but after a few minutes,

it turns out Alexandra noticed
some obvious differences.

I was so desperate,

that I really needed it to be him.

But it wasn't him.

When it turned
out that it wasn't Kai,

it was hard, it was really hard.

Because I felt the pain
that she was feeling.

I mean, this is Alex's service dog.

Kai!

Alex withdrew
and she withdrew from me.

Kai!

I'd call her and we'd talk.

We wouldn't talk about Kai at all.

We'd talk about nothing,

we would just connect.

That's all I could give her.

Let's back up a minute.

What about suspects?

Renee, the dog sitter,

she was the first suspect.

Renee's behavior was a little odd

when Kai went missing.

She wasn't really out there
helping Alex 100% of the time.

I think if I had been watching a dog

that went missing while
it was my responsibility,

I would have pretty much lost my mind.

I was the last
person to see him, you know?

It didn't look good.

I was getting kind of overwhelmed

by not doing enough

when I didn't know what else I could do.

It was just so weird to me how a dog

could just vanish out of the blue.

That does not happen.

There's always a sign,
there's always something.

I've had German Shepherds.

When they're trained, they don't leave.

They pretty much know their boundaries

and for Kai to have
taken off over that fence

and to get out a gated community,

it, to me, was just weird.

I thought there's gotta be somebody

that did this deliberately.

But she just kept saying, no.

I can't think of anyone.

I'm like Alex, an ex, anybody.

That does seem strange.

Were you aware there was an ex?

I knew that there was an ex-husband

but he had no idea where she lived.

He had no idea that she was gonna be gone

at the time.

So, like, why?

He was deployed to Okinawa

so how could he have the dog?

- He's got friends.
- I don't know.

- No, I--
- I don't know, so...

Why wasn't your ex-husband

a suspect initially?

I started the
divorce process about a year

before Kai went missing and I hadn't

been with him in a year.

There was nothing connecting me to him.

And we're ongoing divorce.

It was civil, it was cut and dry.

But then, right after Kai disappeared,

my ex messaged me and said
"how is the paperwork coming?

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

I responded to him that
I can't do anything

until I find Kai.

He is my sole priority right now.

If you want to proceed with things,

you will have to do it on your own.

And he replied, this was late December,

he said "okay, no problem.

"Just let me know if I can help."

On December 22nd, 2014,

Alex met her ex-husband in court

to finalize the divorce documents.

Alex asked him whether he knew

where Kai was and he answered no.

Shortly after, Alex's
ex, a Marine sergeant,

left for Okinawa, Japan on
a unit training deployment.

Was it at that point

that the ex was no longer a suspect?

The police detective assigned to this

ruled him out.

They said this is a missing dog case,

they have murders and rapes out there

that they're trying to solve.

The first Christmas
having Kai missing,

I can't describe the emotions that I felt

with him gone.

It was the hardest thing
that I had to deal with

of him not being around for Christmas.

I was just so empty that he was gone.

And I didn't know where he was.

It had rained really bad for three days.

Everything was so wet and muddy

and here I thought he was by himself,

getting rained on, hungry, sad.

He's been a house dog all his life,

he's been spoiled, he's been pampered.

He doesn't know how to survive out there.

And here I am in my house,
all warm and toasty.

I have food, water, shelter

and he doesn't have any of that.

The disappointments started

taking their toll with
the passage of time.

The women of Team Kai
were protective of Alex

and tried to spare her
some of the darker aspects

of searching for her missing dog.

There's so
many times we had to look

at people's posts about dead dogs.

There was a couple times I
didn't know if it was Kai.

And I asked my other
teammates to look at it

'cause I did not want
Alex to have to see that

if it was.

It was really hard
to deal with life without Kai.

I was going backwards with my symptoms

and my treatment and my medication.

I had to take more medicine
to get back on track.

I stopped my entire life
just to search for him

because that's the only
thing I could focus on.

The supporters, they gave
me hope to keep pressing on.

And honestly, the Bring Kai Home page

was my lifeline.

Look at those big ears.

Yeah (whining), are you hungry?

Do you want to eat?

To
lose a big dog like that,

that you can count on, just the pure love

and attachment, I think it would just be

completely devastating, and yet,

she kept her wits about her.

That's her strength side.

She had a mission, she could stay focused.

I just had to keep searching

because I know he was out there.

It's the leave no man behind
Marine Corps training.

During her
time serving in Afghanistan,

Alex was stationed at Forward
Operating Base Edinburgh.

Nicknamed FOB Eddie.

The logistics hub for the Marines

in northern Helmand Province.

Alex was one of the few
female Marines on the base.

FOB Eddie is a very small base.

Other than operational stuff,

there is nothing there.

And we were stationed there
for eight months straight.

I remember getting
the Christmas picture,

Christmas in Afghanistan.

They had it set up behind
a piece of plywood.

And then she would be
gone for nine or 10 days

and no news is good news.

Three months had passed

without a single real clue about Kai.

And the chances of
finding him dead or alive

had entirely evaporated.

But on March 7th, everything changed.

We get a message
and it says Kai's not lost.

Just square with the books.

And the profile name was Kai Smith

and there was a new picture of Kai.

I couldn't believe it.

I have over 20,000 pictures of Kai

and this was not one of them.

We were absolutely overjoyed

to know that he was still alive.

It's like, this is it.

We know he's alive, now
what do these people want?

Were you
suspecting anyone in particular?

I didn't know if this was a stranger

or somebody that knew me.

I had no idea who it was.

But Kai Smith
would not post a new message

for another two months.

On a festive Sunday at
Petco Park, San Diego,

marching bands honored military
spouse appreciation day.

Please help us bring Kai home.

And the media coverage

took Kai's story nationwide.

Bring Kai home.

Bring Kai home.

Bring Kai home.

Then the messages
started rolling in

from Kai Smith.

I made the big screen?

Haha.

He's saying that Kai's in a better place.

Karma's a bitch.

You're a poser, you're a
liar, you don't have PTSD.

Nothing ever happened to you.

You were never even in the Marine Corps.

Going against everything
that I've been saying.

Kai Smith messaged
the Facebook site constantly

and we took that picture and

analyzed it for everything it was worth.

If you enlarged it enough, you could see

the reflection in Kai's eye.

Somebody's standing in front of a window,

short cropped hair, but
that was all we could get.

It's gotta be someone

she deployed with, right?

So there was a point where Alex,

she had sent us a list.

We called it like the douche bag list.

It was a bunch of names of people

that basically hated
her in the Marine Corps.

She told us
briefly what happened

in the military, but she didn't
want to share anything else

and that was fine.

It was too much and
she couldn't handle it.

While the number of women

serving in the military
has reached historic levels

in the past decade,
there's plenty of evidence

to indicate that the Marine
Corps' biased against women.

Talking about her deployment has always

been difficult for Alex.

We were at FOB Eddie.

You just basically have a bunch of,

we call them hooches,
but they're basically

a bunch of tents that everyone lives in.

I shared living quarters with a couple

of other females.

There were about five of us total,

out of 500 males.

We had one tent to live in for the girls

and you know, 500 male Marines crammed in

a small area.

If there is only one or a few women,

and a lot of men, that
can be a big problem.

And there is substantial research

showing that gender balanced groups

and organizations are better off

in so many ways and more effective.

It's better for men and for women.

It's water and
oil and it doesn't mix

and let's get real and face facts.

All those guys around?

No, I just, I don't think women

should be in combat.

I don't think that is a good idea.

And then she comes back with not only

all of the emotional issues, but she's got

physical problems too.

I really wanted
to be a part of them

but I was sexually harassed
my entire deployment

and there's a lot of male Marines that

just think that females don't belong

in the Marine Corps and for that,

they're gonna treat you like shit.

What Alex experienced during

her deployment is what sociologists

and psychologists call mobbing.

Bullying of an individual by a group.

It initially
gets started by a perpetrator

but then that perpetrator engages

increasing numbers of people

in what becomes a process
of unrelenting aggression

toward a person called the target.

And so that person has to absorb

this constant stream
of aggression against,

in this case, her.

It's day in
and day out relentless.

It's derogatory terms, it's sexism,

it's you're a female, you can't do this

or I'm gonna do this sexual thing to you.

It's just dirty and it...

It's just so crude and it's disgusting.

When I wasn't gonna sleep with them

and I wasn't gonna get with them

and I had to be a bitch and
put on this hard exterior,

it was like they were wanting me to fail

and for that I did fail.

Nobody had my back out there.

I didn't feel safe.

All the messages
from Kai Smith's page

were just taunting Alex.

So we were sure that we'd be able to

go through Facebook and
find out who this was

and get Kai back.

Well there's a lot of
road blocks to doing that.

In order
to obtain an IP address

through Facebook, at the time, you needed

to work through law enforcement.

Otherwise Facebook would not hand over

their server logs to anyone.

Finally, on June 4th,
Alex was able to obtain

a police warrant.

The IP address traced
back to Twentynine Palms.

And that's a Marine Corps base.

So now we had prime suspects.

Within days
of obtaining the warrant,

Alex drove almost three
hours to Twentynine Palms.

But the IP address did not
belong to the Marine base

as she had initially suspected.

It was kind of
a mobile home motel unit

that had open wifi.

Whoever had Kai
could have just rolled up

in their car, brought their computer,

send the messages from
there and gone home.

There was still too many suspects.

There was her whole unit that she felt

really hated her and I said,
this is a huge revenge.

Who could hurt you this badly?

What about the ex?

Was he still being
ruled out at this point?

We knew he was overseas and we knew

he didn't have Kai.

So I monitored his page,
trying to find his friends'

Facebook pages, just
trying to see if someone

posted a picture of Kai.

You know, like they're taking care

but we never found anything.

At least not that way.

Team Kai posted
on other military sites

hoping that one of Alex's fellow Marines

might offer a clue, even
if only anonymously.

The members of
her former unit responded

and hideous things were said,

all about how she doesn't have PTSD

or we don't care about that damn dog.

And I said yeah, you might not

and I don't care what
you think about Alex,

but did she deserve to
have her dog stolen?

And nobody replied to that.

The
messages were really mean

and crude and unrelenting.

Could this kind of verbal
harassment really be

par from the course in the Marine Corps?

The
military could be considered

a mobbing-prone institution for kind

of obvious reasons.

When you try to seek some kind of help,

often the person in the
institutional setting

is complicit in some way.

You can't leave.

If something bad starts to happen to you,

you can't say "Okay I'm outta here"

because then you're court martialed.

So you have to stay and take it.

It goes right up the chain of command.

Being a woman in the Marines

is a tough thing to do.

You have to have tough skin.

You don't have tough skin,

it's just not gonna work
out very well for you.

I've had things happen before I even

went to Afghanistan, things
that I can't even talk about.

Over seven months had passed

since Kai's disappearance and
Alex's physical challenges

and morale would fluctuate daily.

The search continued, but Team Kai

were running out of ideas.

It started getting
harder as the months went on

because we couldn't
find any solid evidence

to where Kai was.

We knew Kai Smith
had connections to Kai

but he could be anywhere.

Unless we find him dead, we
will keep looking for him.

How about
if he was in Arizona?

How about if someone took him
across the border to Mexico?

I thought I was
gonna be searching for Kai

for the rest of my life
but I wasn't gonna stop.

I was never going to give up.

Was there ever a question

in your mind regarding Alex's story?

I never doubted her story.

I just never did and I
personally didn't care

if she had PTSD or a TBI.

Someone stole her dog.

That was really all I cared about

and she depended on that dog.

There was no doubt about that.

He was everything to her

and he wasn't there so there were times

that she was just, you know, break down.

Didn't know who to turn to

and we were always there
for her at that time.

We would always cheer her up

and keep positive, so
that she could go on.

As a last ditch effort,

Team Kai set up a special Facebook page

for which they offered a reward

for the return of Kai.

$5,000 dollars.

No questions asked.

No police involved.

It had all of Kai's pictures,

it had his identification marks,

his tongue, his ear.

If you know where he is, simply trade him

for the money.

Nothing will happen.

I sent that message out, oh my gosh,

30-40 people who were on the list.

Some of them deleted it so
I knew they had seen it.

I sent it to Kai Smith and I got a FU back

so we still don't know who it is

but we suspected her ex-husband.

What clued you in

that it might be him after all?

Well, we never had direct proof

that it was him.

But there was
some things that he said

that Alex confirmed matched with the way

that Pablo spoke.

And the way that he would
answer emails and whatever.

So we intentionally were trying

to agitate Kai Smith now

and get him to give us response.

The more that
we could get him talking,

maybe he'll slip up.

Who knows what he's going to say

that'll lead us to where Kai was.

Kai Smith said that
he had gone into her yard,

Alex was out of town,

this is her trip for Thanksgiving.

And he said it was no
problem to get in there,

take the dog, and go.

And she said this is, I know it's him.

Now I know it's him

and that conversation was the first time

that I've ever heard Alex sound so clear

and so coherent.

At that point,
Alex really said okay,

it's time to dig further
into his family members,

not knowing that we were gonna find him,

'cause we could have searched deep

and far and we still
couldn't have found anything.

But lucky for us, we did.

We finally were able to get a clue.

A clue that led to Kai being in Texas.

Patience, perseverance,

and a bit of luck carried the day.

The big breakthrough came from Twitter

and surprisingly, it was Kenelma's

12 year old daughter, Rachel,

who discovered the final
piece of the puzzle.

I was in my room watching TV

and procrastinating on my
phone texting my friends,

and then I hear my mom,
she called me down,

she's like Rachel.

I'm like okay, I'll come down.

Pablo's sister had
posted happy father's day

post from her son, a young kid,

so at that moment, once we had that name,

I had called my oldest daughter.

And she was like, can
you look for this kid

on social media? 'Cause
he was in high school

so he's around my age.

And I'm like yeah, sure, that's easy.

And I started following him on Twitter

and he followed me back right away,

because of my picture

and that's when I started looking through

all his tweets and they
were all about cars

and girls and then he mentioned the dog

a few times during his tweets

and then I finally saw the video.

Here we go Kai, last trick, ready?

Bang bang Kai.

Bang bang.

Bang bang Kai.

I knew at that moment it was him.

It was just like chaotic, like crying

and me shaking.

Kenelma called me

and I screamed out to my
husband "we found Kai."

I was completely in tears.

And I started screaming,
it's 11 o'clock,

I'm screaming in this hotel room.

They're screaming and it's like,

my husband's looking
at me like I'm insane.

I said they found him.

Bang bang Kai.

Bang bang.

Bang bang Kai.

My heart stopped,
like I couldn't believe

what was happening and so when we got

the lead, I was already
booking a plane to Texas.

Within
two days of discovering

the Twitter video of Kai,

Alex was on a plane to Texas

with the hope of retrieving Kai

and bringing him back home.

But her ordeal wasn't quite over yet.

Yeah well two or
three days and we'll go--

From what?

He says he paid for
the dog, he has a receipt.

Uh, where's the receipt?

After failing
to get Kai turned over,

Alex went to the Denton County, Texas

Sheriff's Department for help.

Over the course
of nine emotional months

of searching, the Bring
Kai Home Facebook page

grew to nearly 20,000 followers.

All rooting for Alex to
bring her best friend home.

We just got a call saying that

we can go see him and I
have waited for this day

for nine months.

We didn't think it was gonna be today,

but we turned right around and--

Your destination will be

on the right.

This is where Kai's at right now.

This building.

We're pulling up to it right now.

It doesn't really matter.

Hi baby!

Ohhhhhh

I have no words to describe

the feeling when I got him back.

It was relief.

I couldn't believe that
it was really happening.

Right now, I'm just enjoying spending

all my time rather than looking for him,

now I'm spending all my time with him.

He's been through a lot.

I just knelt down and said "hi Kai"

and he ran up to me and gave me kisses

and just jumped onto me and I was shocked.

I thought he would be so
much more scared of me

being a stranger, but it's like he knew.

He knew that we helped bring him home

and he was happy and safe.

Nine months of looking for a dog

that I had no idea who he was

and there he was, right in front of me.

It was an amazing feeling.

Just went up to him, got slobbery kisses

all over the place and I loved

every single minute of
meeting Kai in person.

After seeing all of these videos

and photos of him, I mean I had searched

for that dog for nine months

and it's like wow,
you're really a real dog.

Oh my gosh, this is amazing.

I've even had dreams about him.

I made the one
mistake I deeply regret.

Nothing will take the guilt away.

But I'm just so grateful
meeting those girls,

just ordinary girls and the supporters

that cared just as much
as I did about my dog.

I definitely could not have done it alone.

A wounded warrior saves

and is saved by the deep love she shares

with her dog.

But some dogs must bravely face

a different kind of war to find healing.

There we go, comfy?

You are mama's best buddy.

Like Jenn from Ryan's Angels,

Tracy has connected with animals

since she was a little girl.

My handsome boy.

They don't get any handsomer than you.

No they don't.

My good boy.

Mommy's good boy.

Growing up, we had like
a zoo in our house.

Raccoons, iguanas, rabbits, dogs, cats,

you name it we had it.

And I think that's where
my love for animals

came from and it's just
what I was raised with.

It's compassion for all living creatures.

I remember when I was a little girl,

I wrote a letter to President Reagan

at the time, just begging
him to stop animal abuse

'cause we were studying it in school

and I don't know it's always
been a passion of mine.

Just kind of wanted to be a voice

for the voiceless.

And like Jenn,

it wasn't a passing childhood passion.

Even with children at home,

Tracy continues to this
day rescuing animals

that need healing and protection.

But one dog in particular,
Huey, found a special place

in Tracy's heart.

It was actually December
26th, when I saw Huey's picture.

He was in a cage and he
was extremely malnourished.

Seeing Huey in the situation he was

and the condition he
was, my first instinct

was he's probably not gonna
make it through the night.

So that was kind of my concern,

getting to him right away.

Within 20 minutes, Tracy

and her then 18 year old
daughter were on the road

heading to Moreno Valley
in Southern California,

where Huey had been found.

When they got there, Huey was in bad shape

and had been placed in a cage

much too small for him.

A good Samaritan had found the dog

and put it in the only
cage she had available.

And a dog that is that so far shut down

as far as malnourishment,
feeding it regular food

and in big amounts will
shock their system.

What was it like for you

when you saw Huey for the first time?

I don't know, we just kind of connected

at that moment.

He was just sitting on the grass,

kind of leaning awkwardly.

He had visible injuries
all over him, bleeding.

We could there was pieces of
his lips that were missing.

He was just beat pretty well.

So this
is not an accident.

Oh yeah, his face, it was clear that

it had been taped and
it was just open sores

above and then below that area.

I didn't have any doubt in my mind

that he was used as
basically a training tool

for dog fighting.

Usually a bait dog is
the non-aggressive dog.

They will tape the muzzle shut so that

the dog can't fight back.

That's kind of what a bait dog is,

it's sole purpose in life is to train

other dogs to attack it.

I really am shocked

this is going on here in California.

Well, the laws are there

but the sentences don't match the crime

and so many people just don't believe

that animal abuse is going on

or dog fighting happens all over the world

but they don't think that
it happens here in America.

They don't realize how
prevalent it actually is.

Sometimes in their own neighborhoods.

So I realize that we needed to start

with the next generation to work

kind of at ground zero.

It's heartbreaking
to see an animal suffering.

Even for folks involved in animal rescue.

Tracy knew what she had to do.

We picked him up, put him in my car.

I though he would probably pass before

I could get him to the vet.

And honestly, I couldn't
get there fast enough.

I talked with him, and pet him.

His breathing was really
shallow and slow, I remember.

It was a long trip.

You made it to the vet.

What was the prognosis?

The vet didn't think there was any way

he would make it because of

not just the physical injuries

but there internal injuries as well.

He had parasites.

His liver was just about shut down

from the malnourishment.

He had one bite that had actually

pierced his nasal cavity

and it was just pouring blood.

The vet said the best thing you can do

for the dog is take him home

and just let him pass peacefully.

Heartbroken, but resolved,

Tracy wasn't going to
give up on Huey so easily.

I needed to be home, with this dog.

I needed to take care of him.

I like to hold them even
during our last hour

or whatever, just so that they know

that not all of mankind is mean.

For the first 24 hours,

he just had severe diarrhea, vomiting.

I spent the night with him in his kennel.

He couldn't even lift his head.

He was just so weak.

It was just so incredibly hard to witness.

He suffered horrible dreams.

He would just scream and shake

and then he would get
up and he would vomit

and then he'd come right
back up onto the bed

and he would just lay close to me

and just breathe and I would talk to him.

When Huey
came into Tracy's life,

she was going through a
very dark period of her own.

I was his safe place
and at the same time,

he was taking away a lot of the terrors

that I was having at night as well.

It drew me close to him and just that,

you know, I'm not going
to let this dog give up.

He's broken and I'm broken,

but that doesn't mean that it's over.

We hear
so much about people

rescuing dogs, but we
sometimes don't realize

what these dogs do for us.

Absolutely.

He did what no one else could

and that's not to say my
family isn't just as important.

But it was something that unless

you had experienced yourself,

it was really hard for
me to let somebody in

and say I understand,
because you don't understand.

You haven't been there.

Huey was my inspiration.

He was fighting and I was gonna fight too.

Over time, Tracy and Huey

learned to trust each other

in the biggest and smallest of ways.

When I put his medications
on his face at first,

he wouldn't let me get anywhere near him.

But after a week, he knew
that I was trying to help him

and he'd sit for me when I

put so many different
types of medication on him

and in him and

just kind of became best friends.

So when
did you get the sense

that Huey was gonna make it?

After he made it through
the first 48 hours,

I thought, you know what?

We're gonna do this.

He's gonna be okay.

But for a good two,
three months afterwards,

there were so many ups and downs.

This is fixed but now this is infected

or his blood counts are low now.

One of the spots on his head

was possibly a bullet hole

and possible cancerous.

And I just thought I'm not gonna let

this poor dog be beat.

It seems
like your devotion's

what gave Huey the
strength to pull through.

Yeah, I started seeing
a light in his eyes

and he started lifting his head up to me

and he would respond to me.

Oh he's a good boy.

He's a good boy.

One night I remember
Huey just grabbed a toy

and just looked at us.

Huey!

Then he jumped on the couch

and I was just like praise Jesus,

I was just so happy.

I was just over the moon.

One night, Huey went up to my littlest boy

and reached up his paw to my son

and it was just very emotional.

And I knew that he trust us.

He trust each and every one of us.

At that moment I knew, this
dog's not going anywhere.

This dog's gonna stay with us.

Oh, say hi daddy!

Is daddy home?

So how did Huey fit in

with the rest of your rescued animals?

Huey's great.

He's just gentle from day one,

just very, very gentle.

He's fantastic with my fosters.

We still foster cats, kittens, puppies,

lots of dogs.

But he's so much more than a dog to me.

He's family.

The one and only Mr. Huey.

My fourth child huh?

Yeah Mr. Huey.

Huey's progress was dramatic.

When Tracy rescued him,
he weighed only 33 pounds.

But 10 months later--

He's nearing 70 pounds.

He's well-fed.

Most of the injuries have healed

but he may have to have
reconstructive surgery

on his jaw in the future.

Every day I come home and I tell Huey

we made another step,

a step closer to fixing the future.

Huey's rescue and recovery

inspired Tracy to create
the Saving Huey Foundation

which works toward
increasing public awareness

of animal abuse.

Okay, follow me over here.

Here at the
shelter in Wildomar, California,

the foundation offers a unique program

to educate young children.

We started Huey's
Heroes reading program

for the next generation
to teach them compassion

for all living things.

And so we go visiting the shelters.

We read to the dogs in a calm voice.

A lot of abuse cases, they've never known

a gentle hand.

Maybe never a gentle voice.

And on the other side of that,

I was always the kid who prayed

that my teacher wouldn't call on me

to read aloud in my classroom
because I would stutter.

But the animal's not gonna care.

An animal's not gonna judge us

and so we put together the program

to help kids improve their reading,

to give them some
confidence in their skills.

What Tracy really wanted

was to help more dogs like Huey.

To provide medical care and rehabilitation

for animals who are
victims of severe abuse,

neglect, have a disability,

or merely seniors that
have been abandoned.

Tracy and her husband searched

for an affordable property for three years

and finally, in 2018,
they were able to make

their dream come true.

The property is
just under three acres.

It's far enough away but
yet close enough to town.

The animals just run and run

and they can bark without worry that

the neighbors are gonna complain.

This is kind of like my heaven on earth

here for animals.

There's no judgment here.

Blind, disabled, it doesn't matter.

Everyone is equally loved
here and everyone has

the same opportunities here.

And that's what the ranch is all about

and that was our vision
and slowly we're putting

that vision into play.

Yes, we have food.

Oh Baxter, you almost made mama drop it.

Right now we have over
20 special needs animals.

Eight special needs cats.

And then the remainder being the dogs.

Can you smile?

So we have Louise, who's
one of our seniors.

She had both of her rear legs broken

when she was young and they
healed completely backwards.

Lola Bean who's a senior.

She's paralyzed as well.

And then we have Mimi, who's
one of our newer cases.

She's a little Shih Tzu.

Blind in one eye.

Hailey came to us yesterday.

She's our little emaciated kitty.

She's five weeks old.

We have Rose, who's our Great Dane.

A horrible abuse case,

but healing wonderfully, doing great.

We have Rocky who's a tripod.

He lives here at the ranch

because he's too grumpy to adopt out.

There's also our regulars that live here

at the ranch.

Baxter and Hagrid.

And we have Max who is a double amputee

on his front legs.

He has a wheelchair

and is learning to move around in that.

We have Scoots who is
paralyzed on his back legs.

He's the one that goes into the schools

and we talk about
accepting our differences.

So who gets to stay

and who gets adopted out?

What's the policy?

We do the rehabbing here at the ranch

and then we like to try
to find foster homes

for them while they're looking
for their forever home.

You all get medicines.

Where are my old girls?

Okay little ones.

Yes, you are ready.

You know what Henry?

You're not one of my old babies.

The seniors are the hardest to place

so we know that when we take on,

we'll be their hospice.

They'll stay with us until
the end of their lives.

We just make them as comfortable as we can

and just give them lots of love.

Something that a lot of
them haven't had before.

Only two
weeks after Tracy moved

to the ranch with her family
and all of her animals,

massive wildfires broke
out in July of 2018

in Southern California.

Breaking news right at the top.

Firefighters have been
working throughout the morning

trying to stop the Cranston Fire

but it has tripled in size.

Thousands of people are
evacuated around Idyllwild.

Even with a 20 mile buffer

between Tracy's ranch and Idyllwild,

the Cranston Fire had already taken out

nearby power lines and cell phone towers

and threatened to spread further south.

For 10 long days,
we didn't have electricity.

We lived off a generator.

The average temperature during that period

was about 105 degrees and we had no water.

We had to run down the hill for water,

bottled water, gasoline to
keep the generator running.

All my refrigerated medicine spoiled.

My husband, he ended up cashing all of his

vacation so he could stay with me,

help me keep the animals cool.

It was a really traumatic, traumatic time.

I can't even
imagine how you managed.

And you've had more challenges.

We've had a series of earthquakes

since moving in and each one

upsetting the animals.

By the time I get them calmed down,

we start with the aftershocks.

So basically kind of one
disaster after another.

But we're surviving.

If it's taught me anything, it's that

the evacuation plan I thought I had

so precisely laid out, was really nothing.

I feel more prepared

in spite of everything that's happened.

Can we talk about Huey?

I know it's difficult for you.

Can you share what happened?

We knew there was a liver problem

and every six months
he had blood work done

and the problem was always there

but got a little bit better

so we were completely thrown off guard

when Huey passed.

Huey lived happily

with Tracy and her family for 2 1/2 years

until May of 2017, when
injuries he sustained

as a bait dog finally took his life.

I had lost my best friend.

But my daughter was getting
married at that time

so I kept busy.

I was busy with the wedding,

I was busy with my older son moving out,

I was busy with just life in general.

Every time I talked about it,

I would choke up, I would cry.

I would stop eating
and it took me probably

just about a year processing it,

accepting the fact that he was gone.

And somehow he was still with me.

He was my inspiration
to kind of keep going.

We were kind of kindred spirits.

A lot of us, I think, are
wrapped up in the world.

We're busy trying to
compete with our neighbors.

We're busy trying to be successful

and miss the simple things in life.

The love of a dog is right there.

They're just waiting, they're waiting

for that opportunity and a lot of times

it only takes locking eyes with an animal

and looking into that
animal to see a soul.

To see the love, the unconditional love

that they have to offer us.

Once you allow that into your life,

you can see the souls and they

look right into ours and they love us

regardless of all of our faults.

They love us.

Thank you.

So weird Hagrid.

Okay.

When CVS told me
that she needed the surgery,

my first thought was
she's not strong enough.

But I think it's her only...

She
may be stronger now but--

Okay.

This
is a lot of hard work.

How do you keep up your hope

with so much loss?

It's a challenge,
it's a 24 hour job.

A lot of our calls come in
the middle of the night.

Most of the time, it's special needs

and medical cases.

There's a lot of guilt
that goes with that.

A lot of guilt of why I can help one

and I can't help the other.

But the animals, they
kind of keep me going.

I'll go outside, especially
in the evening time,

come dusk, once getting everyone fed

and I can visualize Huey
running around the ranch.

I tell him a lot of times,

I hope that I'm making him proud.

When I hear the wind blow if I'm working

in the kitchen, I think about him

and not a day goes by
that I don't miss him.

I just like to think that

there's a part of him with me always.

"Listen to the wind and know I am near"

Good night my sweet peas.

The dogs we love

and who love us, stay with us forever.

The pain of loss is an echo

of how connected we truly are.

They're in our DNA

as are we in theirs.

Two species made better with
every afternoon snuggle,

and relentless slobber.

Every squirrel chased

and treat devoured.

Every loss softened, every joy multiplied.

Every dog's life has value.

All have a story worth telling.