June 16, 2010,
Kim Morgan
Texas
"Texas" gets ready to help troops in Iraq"
What a way to end senior year at The Woodlands High School – a trip to Somerset to pick out a long-awaited, mine-detecting dog.
Shelby Howard, 18, and Billy Furay, also 18, visited the Marshall Legacy Institute, an organization that trains landmine-detecting dogs to serve overseas.
Howard, who was the president of the school's Interact club, said they chose their Belgian Malinois because he had a scar on his head.
"It happened when he was a puppy, but we aren't sure how," Howard said. "But we thought the scar represents the obstacles we went through in obtaining him."
Howard is referring to the April 24 theft of $9,000 during a fundraiser.
Interact students and Council for International Affairs (CIA) students were trying to raise $20,000, which is what it costs to train one Beligian Malinois.
As word of the theft and news of a subsequent arrest began to spread, the community rallied and donations came pouring in.
Students voted to name their dog Texas, in honor of soldiers from Texas who are serving around the world.
Texas was born in the Netherlands Jan. 17, 2009.
He arrived at the training academy in Somerset three weeks ago, and after a couple of weeks of acclimating to the warmer temperature, atmosphere and training facility, he began training. Texas has to learn about explosive odors, how to work the minefield grid and complete obedience training.
Billy Furay, vice president of CIA at The Woodlands High School, said Texas will head to Iraq in February.
"I hope his handler will keep in contact with us so we can see how Texas is doing," Furay said. "That would be pretty cool. I hope our dog Texas represents our state Texas well, and saves a lot of lives."
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