It was a heartwarming reunion at the Boise Airport, as Army specialist Vance McFarland reunited with the dog who served with him in Afghanistan.
Instantly recognizable to him, Ikar ran to his handler, with the kind of excitement you expect in moments like this — when you haven’t seen someone you love in three years. Their long overdue reunion taking place in a very different setting from the one they left behind, in Afghanistan, when the pair worked together to find IEDs.
“It was like getting back a little piece of home,” McFarland told the small crowd that gathered to witness the reunion. It’s one of those airport moments that you want to playback in your head over and over. The moment you see someone you love through the glass, and everything on the ground feels right again.
The two left broken from the consequences of war – now somehow whole again as they return to a life back home in the States together. But there was a time when the Afghanistan War vet didn’t think he’d ever see the 5-year-old Czech Shepard again.
They were separated shortly after McFarland returned home from Afghanistan in 2012, and Ikar was put back into the program for Tactical Explosive Detection Dogs – or TEDD.
After Ikar was sent to another handler, and upon return from another tour overseas, the bomb-sniffing dog was adopted by a contractor, who later abandoned him at a kennel. That’s when Mission K9 Rescue stepped in and found a way to get the duo back together, according to KTVB.
McFarland and his canine companion together at last. The Army vet promised his four-legged pal would have a very comfortable retirement, along with the rest of McFarland’s family — his wife and their two other dogs.
In fact, he already had plans to go to the lake with Ikar their first weekend back together. Doesn’t seem like Ikar was too worried about the future, as he was very happy rolling around on the airport floor playing with McFarland and the new toy he got after landing in Boise.
