LYON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The ashes of a cancer-stricken service dog who served three tours in Afghanistan with the U.S. Marines have reached their final resting place.
The Detroit News and MLive.com report a couple hundred people gathered Saturday for the burial of Cena at the Michigan War Dog Memorial in Oakland County’s Lyon Township. The 10-year-old black lab was interred with other military service dogs.
State Sen. Mike Kowall says Cena “has done a fabulous job” and now “is welcomed home.”
The dog was a bomb-sniffer for the Marines until retiring in 2014. Cena became a service dog for Lance Cpl. Jeff DeYoung, the dog’s first wartime partner.
DeYoung organized a celebration last month in Muskegon that drew hundreds before Cena was euthanized at a museum ship and carried off in a flag-draped coffin.
Tanya O’Connor of Clio places the paw of her dog, Ace, on Cena’s ashes alongside her great niece, Skylar Erver, 9, during a funeral service for the 10-year-old military service dog, at the Michigan War Dog Memorial in South Lyon on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017. (Hunter Dyke/The Ann Arbor News via AP)
U.S. Marine veteran Lance Cpl. Jeff DeYoung carries the ashes of his dog, Cena, with Marine Corps veteran John North during a funeral service for the 10-year-old military service dog at the Michigan War Dog Memorial in South Lyon on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017. (Hunter Dyke/The Ann Arbor News via AP)
Cena’s ashes sit on the hood of U.S. Marine veteran Lance Cpl. Jeff DeYoung’s Jeep before a funeral service for the 10-year-old military service dog at the Michigan War Dog Memorial in South Lyon on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017. (Hunter Dyke/The Ann Arbor News via AP)
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