WEBVTT

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- I'm Staff Sergeant Danielle Garcia.

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I'm an Emergency Manager

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at the 108th Civil Engineer Squadron.

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I'm a registered nurse.

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I work at Med Express.

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My pit bull, Pepper, she actually

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was diagnosed with a brain tumor a month

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before I was deployed.

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I had to put her down because
her symptoms became so bad.

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It was losing a part of me.

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And at the same time putting her down

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before I was deployed
was a bittersweet moment

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because I got the chance to be with her

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and comfort her and be in her last moments

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before going away.

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So I was deployed to
an undisclosed location

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for six months with Emergency Management.

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You would see stray animals everywhere.

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One day we were driving back to my shop

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and I see this little skinny tan dog

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just run across the street.

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Well, two days later a
friend of time texted me

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saying Pest Management caught a dog

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and pest management's
building is right next to mine

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so I just ran outside and I saw her

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and I was like that is the dog I saw.

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So I just went straight to her.

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And I was I guess
jokingly I was just saying

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"I just want to take her home."

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And Technical Sergeant Dorsey who is part

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of Pest Management there she said there

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is a way people have done it.

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And that she would find
out information for me.

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I think it was around November.

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I had the application
for Puppy Rescue Mission.

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I filled out everything.

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I filled out her whole
story, how I met her.

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Got all the paperwork, everything done

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and was finally able to ship her over

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and my family received
her around January 16th.

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So she was here before I was.

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She's so gentle and so sweet.

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And when we found her she was by herself.

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And there's usually dogs
running around in packs.

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But because she was by herself

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she's very submissive, very timid.

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And a lot of people that had seen her

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before I even saw her thought that

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she was actually gonna die of starvation

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not really eating and just wither away.

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Bringing her here I do feel bad

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bringing her to a cold environment.

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One, I feel privileged to have her.

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I feel lucky that I was able to have her

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and bring her here and everyone
that was involved in that

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allowing me to even have such a gift.

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And it was one of the best things I think

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I got out of my deployment was her.

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(footsteps)

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(string music)