Great picture of two Canine Companions for Independence assistance dogs and their humans taken during the recent US Paralympics Military Sports Camp that was held at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) Oct 14-17:

Buddy Hayes, Canine Companions for Independence service dog Ellie, Kristin Valent, CCI facility dog Tommy.


Left to right – Buddy Hayes, her Service Dog Ellie, Kristin Valent, physical therapist at NMCSD Comprehensive Combat and Complex Casualty Care (C5), and Facility Dog Tommy who is assigned with her there. (Click the image for a larger version.)

I wrote about Tommy right after his graduation back in May (“CCI Places First Facility Dog At A Major Wounded Warrior Medical Care Center”), and you can read lots about Buddy and Ellie if you look around – they’ve been on Montel, among other things.

Not only a great picture, but a perfect example of something I mentioned just the other day about not confusing how much you hear about a service dog organization’s program (particularly where veterans are concerned) with how good that program is.

There are many cases of highly trained service dogs (CCI dogs being the prime example) helping veterans like this that happen every day without a lotta fanfare, hype, or drama. No big publicity push from the organization that placed the dog, no big screaming headline about how a veteran and his dog are being unfairly treated by (fill in the blank), no big pronouncement from a celebrity or legislator about yet another new dog program that will help veterans – all stuff that I see daily and, frankly, am worn out on.

No, none of that – just someone’s personal picture in a group of pictures linked on Facebook that caught my eye because I know everyone in it and that I asked if I could use.

And a coupla working dogs working.