Patriot story: John and Ajax

John is an Air Force veteran who adopted Ajax (formerly Donner), a large yellow Lab mix, through our partnership with Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Assignment goal is to synthesize the information provided by the member patriot into a compelling story

• It is not necessary to tell the veteran's story in the order that s/he provided the information unless that is the best way to tell the story
• It is not necessary to use all the quotes provided
• You may make minor adjustments to the quotes only to correct for grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.
• Punctuation always resides inside the quote marks, e.g., "like this," and not "like this",
• Close the story with a compelling call to action or question based upon the story's narrative and place in italics at the end, e.g., What are you more willing and able to do now that you have a pet in your life?

Pet's Name
	Ajax
A little about me
	Air Force Veteran on disability
My military experiences
	Air Force, served in UK, met wife in England, went overseas alone, and came back with wife and baby.
My most memorable experience from my time in service
	Injuring my leg ranks high up the list - lol Working through Desert Shield and Storm. Working security and preventing a senior officer from entering a prohibited area without the proper authorization. Him telling me he was authorized but didn't have the paperwork to prove it. So didn't get in.
Why I chose to adopt a pet
	To complete my family and motivate me to exercise my injured leg.
Why I chose to adopt through Pets for Patriots
	Heard about the program when browsing online. Got interested, and followed through. There was a local shelter, so decided to go there. The animals there were all very well looked after, and healthy. Decided (with my wife and son) almost immediately that we were going to go ahead and adopt a dog. Found Ajaxwithin minutes! Now our family could be complete, and I certainly had the motivation to walk him and exercise me leg.
How my honorably adopted pet has changed my life
	Well, I certainly do a LOT more walking now! The mobility range of my leg has improved, and overall I feel healthier.
What I love most about my new pet friend
	Ajax just loves being loved! His nickname is "lovebug". He looks forward to his walks and goes totally crazy running around the house whenever he sees one of us pick up his leash. He is hard on toys (kong toys last for about a week), but we have a lot of fun with friendly bets on how long each toy we get him will last. Ajax completes our family, and we knew he was intelligent when we first got him, we also knew he had numerous issues to work through. With time and patience he is getting through them, he tries so hard to please us.
What I would tell other veterans or service members who might be thinking about adopting through Pets for Patriots
	Do it - these animals really can change your life for the better!

From post-adoption update in July: As I received a message on the answer machine, I am guessing that my earlier email did not get through to you... So here is a copy of it: "Sorry for the slow reply, but have been totally focused on getting Donner (now AJAX) fully integrated into our family. He is a wonderful boy, but has a few bad habits that we are slowly working on. We have taken longer than usual to train him into our family, simply because he had already been returned to the shelter twice before, and it took him almost a month to realize that he now has a permanent home. One of his favorite things is destroying supposedly indestructible dog toys (8 of them in the first month alone) - much to the amusement of all of us... He is really smart, and will just keep working on one area of the toy, slowly turning it in his paws to get to the right spot, before starting the chewing. He pulls hard on the leash, especially when walking along a road with heavy traffic, but this is something we are all working on, and have now got him to the stage where he will sit and wait for the traffic to clear a bit before continuing the walk. Obviously he gets a treat for being such a brave boy and not trying to run into the road, which is what was originally happening. Other problem areas were so minor they really didn't take long to correct at all. How best to describe him... Adorable, Loyal, Protective (especially with my wife, when he will growl and "guard" her from anyone on their walks - again something we are working on, with treats for good behavior), there are really no other good enough words to describe our newest addition to our family!!!"