Associated Press/FoxNews.com
Monday, December 21, 2009
WASHINGTON — Dave Sharpe was troubled by thoughts he couldn’t share after he returned from serving in Iraq. “I found myself waking up in the middle of the night, punching holes in walls, kicking and beating the refrigerator door,” he said.
Then one day, the former Air Force senior airman went with a friend to a local pit bull rescue and took home a puppy, Cheyenne. Next time he found himself kicking something, “I saw this puppy, cocking her head, looking up at me, like, what are you doing?”
Finally, Sharpe had someone he could open up to. “I froze, I put down my drink, I picked her up and laid with her in my bed,” he said. “I cried and I told her the whole story. I didn’t feel judged.”
The experience inspired Sharpe, of Arlington, Va., to start Pets2Vets, a group that pairs veterans with homeless pets by arranging adoptions of shelter animals. It has made two or three matches a week since its start in October.
