She Had to Leave Her Military Dog Behind. Four Years Later, the Crate Opened, and He Walked Straight Into Her Arms

When Staff Sgt. Angela Lowe first met Szultan, he was not an easy dog.

He was a German shepherd being trained as a military working dog, and he had a mind of his own. He had the strongest bite she had ever seen. “He crushed my steel-toe boot,” she said. He left plenty of people with bruises.

So Angela made him a deal. “Hey, look, man. I know you’re grumpy. I need you to not bite me, please,” she told him. “I’ll respect you, you respect me, and we will figure this out together.”

It worked. The two of them became a team. “I absolutely could trust Szultan 100%,” she said.

But the work was hard on her body. She began having trouble with her hands and kept dropping the leash. After two spine surgeries, she was medically retired from the Air Force, and she had to leave Szultan behind.

“Leaving Szultan was really hard for me,” she said. “It’s indescribable how bonded you are to your dog.”

Four years later, she got a message. Szultan was retiring. Would she like to take him?

There was a catch. She had only two weeks to pick him up in Charleston, South Carolina, a 10-hour drive from her home in Pittsburgh. A nonprofit called Mission K9 Rescue stepped in. Their team drove Szultan all the way to her.

When the truck pulled up and his crate door opened, Szultan walked straight into her arms.

“Welcome to the pack, bud,” she told him.

“Having him come back,” she said, “is like having a piece of the Air Force with me.”

Do you have a dog who is part of the family? Share this with a fellow dog lover.