Response to the Press Democrat's article on veterans and dogs

The Press Democrat did not publish the following letter to the editor that I sent them Sun. afternoon in response to their excellent article on veterans and dogs. So I am posting it below:

I appreciate the Press Democrat for publishing the article “Veterans’ Best Friend” by Julie Johnson in today's Veterans’ Day issue. I had just returned, with a woman friend who was in the Navy, from our annual breakfast at the Sebastopol Vets Building. I take my own new dog each Monday to the Santa Rosa Vets Center, where a dog trainer offers free services to vets with dogs. He works with canine companions, which the article mentions. He may be open to other vets and family members with dogs joining us.

I, too, have flashbacks from being raised in a military family, from limited time as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserves, and from living in Chile when fascists took over and killed the democratically-elected president and tens of thousands of others, including my best friend, and torturing my fiancé.

Your excellent article writes about how “service dog Major nuzzles Army veteran Steve Piotter.” It describes Major as “placing his head and then his entire upper body onto Piotter’s lap." My own beloved dog Daisie, part golden retriever/German Shepherd/pit bull sometimes does that, especially when she perceives me as crying, being sad, or zoned out from horrible memories. “It absolutely comforted me and consoled me and got me through it,” Poiter said. Daisie is also a protector, which I feel that I need at this unpredictable time in history.

As someone trained in psychology who has taught psychology in various colleges, including SSU, as well as their War and Peace course, I can testify that appropriately trained dogs can benefit those of us with Post Traumatic Stress. I do not consider us to be “disorders,” but as wounded. Whether it is a psychological or physical wound, one can recover, with appropriate help, from both two-footeds and four-footeds.

I plan to add quotes from your article to a longer article that I am currently writing for the publications that I contribute to regularly. It's entitled “The Essential Human-Dog Connection.”

I also want to refer readers to the book “Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace,” composed of writing by members of our Veterans Writing Group, lead by author Maxine Hong Kingston, former UC Berkeley teacher and author of “Woman Warrior.” My essay in our book is called “Sound Shy.” It is about the sound trauma that I have from being raised in a loud Air Force family at bases around the world and then being in the military. We used to meet in San Francisco, and then for a long time in rural Sebastopol. We now meet once a year at Friend’s House in Santa Rosa and elsewhere.