Farewell Target Young

Liam Looking for Target

The Way We Were

Memories, may be beautiful and yet
What's too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget
So it's the laughter we will remember
Whenever we remember
The way we were

as sung by Barbra Streisand

It is Liam writing again this week.  I want to express my sadness over the death of Target, the heroine dog who saved 50 soldiers in Afghanistan earlier this year.  She and her two buddies alerted the compound to the presence of a suicide bomber and attacked him before he could get into the soldiers' quarters.   This brave pack suffered severe injuries in their defense of the camp. Sasha died as a result of her injuries but Target and Rufus survived.   Target was nursed back to health by the camp's medic, Terry Young.  Target came home to the US to live with the Young family in Arizona in July, 2010.

Target appeared on Oprah's Hero show in September, 2010.

And she has a Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1619570149&ref=profile#!/profile.php?id=100001441372696&v=wall     Check it out.

Yes, we are friends on FB.

If you have not heard of Target, please read about her, click on the following link
  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/us/19dog.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=target&st=cse

Rufus and Target

The story of Target does not have a happy ending.   Target left the Young home solo on an excursion, was picked up by animal control on the call of a neighbor, brought to a shelter, and mistakenly killed on Monday, November 15, 2010.  Mr. Young had spotted Target online and had paid the fee for her release. But attention was not being paid and Target was dead by the time Terry Young came to pick her up.
The shelter is a kill shelter.
The story  has been all over the news for a couple of weeks. So I am not barking about something you do not know.
What I want to howl about in this week's Licks is the importance of supporting no kill shelters.   There seem to have been a series of mistakes in procedure and unfortunate assumptions in the days leading to Target's demise, but in the end if Target had been brought to a place like the one where I was brought 3 years ago this could not have occurred.  I am a rescue from Tennessee.  My brother and I were saved and brought to North Shore Animal League on Long Island, the largest no kill facility in the country.  I was adopted from there on New Year's day 2008, as was my brother.  Please look at their website.
http://www.animalleague.org/

Many folks from all over the world are expressing their thoughts on Targets's FB page and lots of good ideas are being posted along with the condolences.  Perhaps this sad end to a brave innocent loving dog's life will have a positive effect on how we treat my canine buddies.  Thank you Target. RIP.

Woof, Woof

Liam in his spiritual place

Love and Licks, Liam McNiff-Nikol