Homeless disabled Nam vet says goodbye to his best friend of 16 years (Get out the Kleenex!)

[Bozita]

Kaiser is held by head treatment technician David Reid in... (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_10036826

Veteran claims dog: `I'm so happy he's home'

By Dennis McCarthy, Columnist
Article Last Updated: 07/29/2008 11:32:39 PM PDT


Bob Mikolasko woke up Tuesday morning to the most beautiful words he's ever heard.

"Your dog's on the front page of the Daily News! Kaiser's still alive!" a friend yelled, knocking on the garage of a home in Sunland where the 56-year-old homeless Vietnam veteran has lived rent-free the past couple of years. "I stood there in the street reading the story and bawling my eyes out," Mikolasko said. "I had just spent a week of pain and tears thinking he was gone, and now here he was still alive."

Mikolasko jumped into his battered old pickup truck and drove to Chatoak Pet Medical Center in Granada Hills, where a week earlier he had left his sick, 16-year-old best friend on the front steps wrapped in a blanket after Kaiser suffered a stroke and wouldn't eat or drink anything.

"Please forgive me," he had scribbled, beginning a long, poignant letter of their devotion to each other.

"I've nowhere to turn so I ask you to mercifully, gently, and lovingly, please put him to sleep. I'm a homeless, disabled vet and I know when to say goodbye to a friend, and it's time."

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[BrklynLiberal]

1. I hope that they can live together for a long itme to come and

somehow they will BOTH get the help they need.

[Lifetimedem]

2. Wonderful story

I would like to send a donation to that shelter

[AndyA]

3. Animals give you unconditional love.

They don't care what color your skin is, how much money you have, or what you look like.

If you're kind to them, they will love you forever.

What a great story, I'm so glad they're back together.

[Beaverhausen]

4. Oh my goodness

:cry:

[kestrel91316]

5. This story was on the tv news this AM. The veterinarians at

Chatoak found that the dog was not suffering from a stroke, per se. It sounds to me like it was idiopathic vestibular syndrome, where they get acutely dizzy and falling down. It's transient, and supportive care is all they need until the vestibular system resets at its new "normal".

Happy endings - it's why we do what we do.

[Bozita]

8. Good on those veterinarians!

They don't do what they do for the money.

Good folks.

[kestrel91316]

10. We are. Wish more people understood that. I get called a

lying shill for pet food companies and drug companies here on DU occasionally.

[alstephenson]

6. Sweet and sad at the same time.

I'm glad they were reunited.

[LostinVA]

7. OMG

:cry:

I just picked up the kitty and kissed her.

[Bozita]

9. I found the video and more ...

http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_10027349

Dear veteran: Your best pal's waiting to go home

By Dennis McCarthy, Columnist
Article Last Updated: 07/29/2008 01:27:44 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

Kaiser is held by head treatment technician David Reid in... (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)
RELATED:
PHOTOS: Kaiser, a beloved dog
See the envelope and letter
It had to be one of the toughest, most heartbreaking decisions the guy ever made - walking up to Chatoak Pet Medical Center in Granada Hills before it opened the morning of July 21 and leaving his best friend, Kaiser, on the doorstep.

The scribbled handwriting on the envelope of the letter he left, along with a bowl of water and a blanket to keep his ailing friend warm, said as much:

"Please help him. His name is Kaiser and he won't harm anyone. He's 16 years old and I think he experienced a stroke this past evening. Be good to him as you would your own child for he's been mine 4 a loving lifetime."

Debbie Herot, the pet hospital's practice manager, looked down at the old dog trying to stand on wobbly legs and felt tears well up in her eyes as she began to read the letter.

"Dear Dr's - Please forgive me for this horrible transgression. I've no where to turn so I ask you to mercifully, gently, and lovingly, please help him sleep.

"He's been my friend, my teacher, my pupil, my lifelong loving and loyal companion since he was 8 months old. Saturday evening he began rolling on his back on the floor, all 4 legs extended, rigid, and thrusting wildly in all directions.

"I saw fear and panic in his eyes. He won't drink water and he refuses food as if he's totally lost the knowledge of what to do with food.

"I'm a homeless, disabled vet and I know when to say goodbye to a friend, and it's time."

But he was wrong.

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