On the Home Front
Alisa Johnson calls her Australian shepherd, JD, her “fluffalump” and her “soul dog” and says, “I have to fall asleep with my hand touching his fur.” In 2011 Alisa learned that her husband, Shawn, would be deployed with the Navy at the same time she was set to begin her training as a Marine in Quantico, Virginia. The couple found themselves at an agonizing crossroads. “JD couldn’t live with me in the barracks, so our only options were to have family take him or to board him,” she recalls.
Alisa’s family was sympathetic, but “it just wasn’t in their plans to take in a dog,” she says. Luckily, Alisa and her husband were able to avoid the emotional and financial burden of boarding JD after Shawn’s distant relatives, who lived near Quantico, stepped up. The family had a
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