Is A Dog Man’s Best Friend?

• Angelina Joyce, Grade 5, St Benedict's Primary School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

A long time ago, during the Vietnam War in the 1960’s, there was a dog named
Hugo. Hugo was a war dog who was a champion in his breed. He was a golden
retriever with muscular legs and a brain to match.
One day it was time to let Hugo go like the other dogs that had graduated.
His trainer said, “You know what? Since Hugo has been the smartest dog, we
should give him to the Army as a bomb sniffing dog.” Everyone agreed with
that so the owner strolled to the Army Recruiting Office with Hugo’s report.
Then a few barks later he was in.
The following day, the army chose a soldier, brave and strong just like
Hugo. He was a combat engineer named Corporal Phillip. Phillip was glad to
have a buddy to help him to find mines and bombs in the ground but he would
have to take care of him all day long. He would have to feed him, bath him
and especially train him to be a team member. Hugo was obviously happy to
help but he was also sad about leaving his original owner.
One day after they arrived at their camp in Vietnam, Hugo wandered off
towards the Mess, so Phillip followed him. Hugo was sniffing the ground left
and right. “I wonder if maybe Hugo is on the track of a mine?”, thought
Phillip. Then suddenly Hugo went into the kitchen. Phillip could hear him
growling and thought he had found something. He put his helmet on and yelled
out, “FREEZE HUGO!” Phillip raced in and then laughed. Do you know why? It
wasn’t a mine at all. It was just a big, juicy, steak that Hugo was tugging
off of the cook’s table. Three of his mates came in just at that time and
cracked their sides with laughter. “If ever we were starving to death, we
would always have Hugo to find us something to eat”, roared Phillip.
Over the following months Hugo got a reputation for being the most brilliant
dog they had ever had in the unit. He found many mines that Phillip was able
to disarm and this saved many human lives.
On April the 1st 1969, the war was at its worst. The Vietcong Guerrillas
became more ferocious and they had planted a lot of mines.
It was on this day during a routine mission that Phillip suddenly heard a
‘CLICK’. Phillip knew he was on a ‘jumping jack’ mine and if he moved his
foot, BOOM...... he was dead! Phillip yelled out to Hugo, “Fetch that log!”
Hugo tugged the log near Corporal Phillip who, bit by bit moved his foot and
replaced it with the log. When Phillip told the Army about what happened,
Hugo became a hero and they built a statue of him at the dog training
school.
Wouldn’t you agree now that a dog is a man’s best friend?