by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton | February 17, 2015 5:49 pm
Better have the Kleenex handy…[1] this one made me cry. Spike is an adorable black Labrador Retriever and he is loved by two very different people. One is Virginia Capitol Police Officer Laura Taylor, who has Spike as part of the K-9 unit there and they are inseparable. He means the world to her. The other is Jared Heine, a Marine who fought in Afghanistan and was Spike’s handler. Heine had brain injuries along with PTSD and was sent home to Louisiana. Fate and Heine’s mother brought all of them together. Knowing that Heine was having a very hard time of it, Taylor made the gut-wrenching decision to give Spike back to him. Through sadness and tears, she did the right thing. It is one of the most unselfish acts I have ever seen.
From BizPac Review:
Meet Spike, a sweet black Labrador retriever who is at one side of a love triangle involving a Marine veteran and a Virginia Capitol police officer.
Spike is the object of the others’ affections.
Before Spike became a member of the Virginia Capitol Police Department’s K-9 unit, he served in Afghanistan as a “bomb sniffer” alongside handler Jared Heine, according to CBS local WTVR Channel 6[3].
“He did a great job at it,” Heine told the station. “He was like my brother, my kid. He slept with me every day like we were inseparable.”
But a series of brain injuries along with post traumatic stress disorder led to Heine’s separation from the service, and his return to his Louisiana home.
But he never forgot Spike.
He often told his mother, Mary Heine, how much he missed his service dog, so she set out to try to locate him.
“It just hit me if I could find Spike it would make a huge difference in his [Jared’s] life,” Mary Heine said.
Enter Virginia Capitol Police Officer Laura Taylor, Spike’s current handler.
“It was pretty much love at first sight,” Taylor told the station of her first meeting with Spike.
That was two years ago, and they’ve been inseparable ever since.
“I didn’t ever expect to not be with Spike until he was an old, old, old man,” Taylor said.
But that idea came to a screeching halt when she learned of the Marine’s plight.
“He [Spike] is more important to me than anybody can know, but we have to do what is right for the whole situation,” Taylor said, knowing she’ was doing the right thing after meeting Heine.
“Take good care of him,” Taylor told Jared Heine. “He means everything to me.”
“I promise I will,” answered Heine.
Taylor’s chief said she’ll soon be getting another dog, and he expects she’ll be falling in love all over again.
Spike must be a very special soul indeed to have two wonderful people like this love him more than anything else. I hope that Spike will lead Hein out of the darkness and back into the light. As for Officer Taylor, her chief has said he will be getting her another dog and what a lucky pooch that will be. A Marine has his battle buddy back by his side… inseparable once more and fighting just like old times. All of this because a mother loved her son and wanted to make him whole again. Two warriors together once more – Semper Fidelis is Latin for “always faithful” and that is what Spike was and always will be.
Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/military/police-officers-unselfish-act-giving-reunites-us-marine-former-combat-dog-video/
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