Army Vet Reunited With His Military Dog

It took a few years to cut through the military red tape, but an Army vet back in the US has been reunited with the bomb-sniffing dog he deployed with in Afghanistan, reports the Army Times. Spc. Joshua Tucker returned to the US in 2011 with a head injury and ended up hospitalized at Walter Reed for months for both his head trauma and PTSD, reports Fox Philadelphia. Though Tucker was initially told he'd be reunited his K-9 patrol partner, Ellen, the Army instead shipped the black lab overseas again.

Wife Sherie then picked up the crusade, enlisting the help of Rep. Kyrsten Sinema from her husband's home base in Arizona. The Army again denied the request for Ellen and Tucker to be reunited, but finally relented after a second formal letter from the congresswoman. "They gave me my life back," says Tucker. When the two reunited, "there is no mistaking, she remembered," says Sherie. In another dog reunion making headlines, a loyal pooch in Brazil waited outside a hospital for days after its homeless owner went to the ER and ended up being admitted, reports the Dodo. Staffers ensured the dog was well-fed; then they broke the rules a bit by allowing an early reunion. (That video also is in the gallery.)