My Home Away From Home

This is a shameless plug for our friends Rod and Lynn who own Pine Tree Kennel. They are such nice people and they love me like I'm one of their own dogs. In fact their daughter has grown to love me so much that she bought a red nose pit bull puppy of her own just a few weeks ago. Her name is Nina and she is going to grow up to be a beauty, just like me!

The coolest thing about this family is how much they support the troops. Last year when my mom was in Iraq I stayed with them a lot because my dad still had to travel for work and family stuff, and they wouldn't even let my dad pay. That was literally hundreds of dollars in boarding fees that they just waived, and they still gave me exercise time outside every day and lots of extra attention because they knew I was missing my mom. Aren't they great?

I stayed there again this past weekend because mom and dad went to Illinois for the annual fall reunion of the Old Farts Club. That's the old timers from the 139th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, a joint unit of the Wisconsin and Illinois National Guard. They have been all over the world so they love to get together a couple times each year to drink beer and tell war stories. This year it just so happened that the Wisconsin Badgers were playing the Fighting Illini there in Champaign and our friend John got tickets for the whole gang, so mom and dad got to see some winning football for a change. It wasn't a total blowout, but the Badgers easily beat the Illini 41-24. That was definitely cause for celebration!

My mom also got to inform all the old timers that the 139th MPAD was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation for their service in Iraq from February 2004 to January 2005. The 139th has a long standing reputation for being one of the best public affairs units in the entire Army, and they really kicked ass in Iraq so this award was well deserved. Mom was happy to be the one to announce the news to all those who served in the unit in the past but have long since retired. She's been an honorary member of the OFC for several years already, but now that she's retired too she's official! In the photo below she's posing with the guys and the new unit shirt. Pretty cool, hey?