A long and meaningful relationship was forged back in 2012, when Kyle Smith and military working dog, Bodza, were both deployments in Kyrgyzstan. Kyle, who is a soldier in the U.S. Air Force, worked closely with Bodza. When Bodza finally retired, Kyle didn’t hesitate to adopt his friend and give him a golden retirement.
While the pair spent plenty of unforgettable years together, when Bodza was 11-years-old, he developed a degenerative illness that devastated his spinal cord.
When it came time to say goodbye to his loyal and beloved companion, Kyle was surprised when he was joined by his superiors – they had shown up unannounced at the vet’s office carrying an American flag. The kind gesture was a very emotional one, as Kyle draped the flag over the former military dog.
As he later recalled, “For these guys to do this for a dog they’ve never even met…he got a good sendoff that day.”
Kyle also added for Inside Edition, “My favorite thing about him was he didn’t care what you were doing, he just wanted to be there doing it with you. All of us have that dog that is so special to us,”
Kyle stated, “I got married with this dog, I got divorced with this dog. I have a son on the way, and the most heartbreaking part is I really wish he was younger, so my son would be able to play with him. He was the nicest dog in the world.”