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View Full Version : A true story about a U.S. veteran and a rescue cattledog ( a good read )



cattle-dog
12-22-2010, 06:48 PM
The video was meant to simply make some Facebook friends, and his mother
in particular, smile.
Steven Boyd, 39, had taught his dog Djaingo how to "say grace," and one
late September morning, camera in hand, he coaxed the sleepy pup out to
the living room and into prayer.
Front paws on Boyd's thigh, head bowed, man and dog offered up these
words:
Thank you for allowing us to be the man and puppy you've allowed
us to be. Father, thank you for our friends and family, their prayers
and support and energy that they give us... Father, I do ask a special
prayer that you help me to not chase the neighbor's cat and to listen to
my master whenever he asks me to do anything.
What began as a post on Boyd's Facebook page was passed on and shared.
It's popped up all over YouTube, appeared on numerous other sites, and
it even got play on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
But the story behind Djaingo the praying dog is deeper than it is cute.
Boyd found his way to the dog just when they needed each other most.
The man was sick - had been for more than a year and a half - when he
strolled into an animal shelter looking for a temporary escape. It was
September 10, 2003, the day before the second anniversary of the 9/11
terrorist attacks, and the memories of that day weighed heavily on him.
For 12 years, Boyd says, he served in the U.S. Army. He says he was,
among other things, a sniper, a paratrooper and, subsequently, a counter
narcotics operator. He'd been fearless professionally and personally.
He'd jumped out of planes, rappelled down cliffs and mountain biked his
way across dangerous terrains.
Now, though, he was losing everything. The hospitalizations kept
happening. His career was shot. The relationship with the woman he
thought he'd marry had ended. The medical questions loomed large. He was
dying.
At the pound that day, he simply offered to walk some dogs. He had no
plan to adopt an animal. But then, three hours into his visit, his eyes
and the dog's locked. He knew, in that instant, they were meant to be
together.
The only problem was the dog was already scheduled to die. It was set to
be euthanized the following morning. It was too aggressive and could not
be trained, the shelter workers insisted. Boyd didn't care.
He begged. He pleaded. And $75 later, the best investment he says he
ever made, the duo went home.
The former military man, who lives in Austin, Texas, put that pup
through its own boot camp. The dog began to trust his owner, show
affection and within six months he'd been transformed. He was happy,
loving, sweet.
"He saved my life as much as I saved his," Boyd says.
Along the way, the Australian Cattle Dog was given a proper name -
rather than his given name, "Chip." His owner thought back to the time
when he'd done some training with the 3rd Royal Australian Airborne. The
men had taught him the term "djaingo" - to "go djaingo," Boyd explains,
means to go out, get drunk and rowdy, pick up women and have bar fights.
And so that tough little dog was named.
Since he first was hospitalized on February 19, 2002, Boyd has
struggled. Because of multiple traumatic brain injuries - sustained
through military exercises, a car wreck, a rappelling accident and a
grenade detonation - he says he suffers from gastroparesis, a paralysis
of the gastrointestinal tract. It makes eating and drinking a form of
"Russian roulette," he says. It can cause food to sit in his stomach and
rot. He has starved himself, unintentionally. For days on end, he can
vomit 10 to 15 times an hour. He's broken ribs in the process.
As a result of this illness and repeated, extensive dehydration, he says
his weight - 175 when healthy - has dropped to as low as 98 pounds.
By his side, in sickness and in health, has been Djaingo. Boyd's parents
live three hours away, and his mother, Cheryl, says she takes solace
knowing the dog is there.
He sticks by her son and keeps watch. When Boyd is too sick to take the
dog out, he can leave the apartment door open. The dog will run outside
on his own "to do his business," she says, and then guard the open door.
If her son is in need of medical attention, the dog will alert
neighbors.
Having Djaingo has been source of comfort to Boyd. But there was one
time when the animal just wasn't enough.
After several days of vomiting four years ago, he thought he'd end it
all. He'd had a friend who years ago had committed suicide by drinking
Clorox, and from the bathtub's floor, where he was curled up, Boyd eyed
the nearby bleach bottle. With the cap off, he prepared to drink.
"I heard it as distinctive as I hear your voice right now," Boyd, his
own voice shaking, says by phone to CNN. "I heard, 'Don't do this.' It
was my father God, and I broke down. I get teary-eyed now talking about
it."
He'd grown up in a Christian home, "a proverbial 'Leave It to Beaver'
family," he says. His dad had been the deacon of their church. His
mother is a Sunday school and Bible study teacher. And though Boyd
always considered himself Christian, up until that moment he realized
he'd been living the Christian life, as an adult, on his own terms.
The debilitating illness that can leave him homebound much of the time,
the loss of everything, had in fact saved him, he says.
"It changed everything. I truly feel as if it was God using a 2-by-4,
smacking me in the head and telling me to wake up," says Boyd, who
described himself as "callous" after his years in the military. "It's
softened my heart in so many ways. It's made me realize the things you
take for granted in life are sometimes the most important things in
life."
He got involved in church. He attends Bible studies when he's able. And
as last year's Christmas gift to his mother, who describes herself as a
"prayer warrior," he taught Djaingo how to say grace.
"He's a disabled veteran on a very limited income," his mom says. So in
lieu of buying each other gifts, she told her son last year that instead
they'd "do something, write something or make something" for one
another.
What her son and Djaingo did for her touched her heart, she says. And,
with the release of the recent video, she's not alone in receiving this
gift.
The response has overwhelmed Boyd. He's received more than 5,000
messages from around the globe - including Australia, Russia, Thailand.
The friend requests on Facebook have poured in by the hundreds. Djaingo,
now with his own Facebook page
<http://ko-kr.connect.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001671152930> , is
racking up new friends, too.
Boyd has gotten marriage proposals. A grandmother who is going through
chemotherapy and lives alone says she watches the video every morning to
help her face a new day. A mother whose son has lost faith is hoping
that by teaching the dog to pray, her son will feel the connection
again, too. Pastors are using the video in sermons.
And all of this, including what it's done for her son, Boyd's mother
says, is proof of "God's hand" at work.
"Steven told us he was so lonely. So much of the time, he's
apartment-bound. Now he's getting emails from all over the world," she
says. "It's given Steven such a boost to his morale. God can take the
tiniest thing and use it for good."
Every evening, Boyd and Djaingo say grace together. It's not that the
man believes the roly-poly dog, who's actually been mistaken for a pig
before, is actually praying. He knows his faithful pet is just doing
what he's told so he can get his dinner.
"But it's an affirmation of my faith to have my dog be able to
participate," Boyd says. "Who would have thought God would use my fat
dog to spread His glory?"