Army Staff Sgt. Julian McDonald was deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 as a dog trainer with the 75th Ranger Regiment. He had a trained military dog, Layka, with him. They were on a routine mission, but it quickly went horribly wrong. A shooter started firing at McDonald and his partner, but Layka took the bullets for them. Despite being shot multiple times, she finished the mission, and was then rushed into surgery. Her right front leg ended up having to be amputated.
For McDonald, there was only one thing to do: he adopted Layka.
“If the dog’s put in the time for the country, then the country owes it to them to put the time into them,” he said. “She saved my life, that’s why I’m here. So I owed it to her to save her life… and that’s why I fought so hard to adopt her.”
People told McDonald that Layka was too aggressive to be adopted, but he persisted, and now, Layka is a much-loved member of his family, especially with his son, who was only one year old when they took Layka in. And while the Army views working dogs as excess equipment, McDonald doesn’t agree.
“Just like us, they deserve to be retired,” he said. “We owe it to them.”
