Target was hailed a hero and her injuries were treated by medics as though she was a soldier. She lived, came to live in Arizona and appeared on Oprah with her owner Sgt. Young
Sgt. Terry Young, the owner of the dog, told The Arizona Republic, 'I just can't believe that something like this would happen to such a good dog.'
Target and two other dogs, Rufus and Sasha, were mutts who befriended soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, who began to feed them and treated the canines as pets on the military base.
One night in February a suicide bomber came to the base in the middle of the night, wearing 25 pounds of explosives and intent on killing Americans.
The three dogs frightened, barked at and bit the bomber, scaring him and waking the sleeping soldiers in the process. Deterred, the terrorist detonated himself outside instead of coming in.
The lives of 50 soldiers were potentially spared because of the dogs' actions.
Sasha was killed, but Target and Rufus lived. Medics treated the injured dogs like soldiers and the two were saved.
Only five soldiers were injured in the bombing and all recovered
Sgt Young said the dogs was treated like royalty from then on at the base at Dand Patan, near the Pakistan border.
With the help of aid groups, Sgt Young brought Target to the San Tan Valley area south-east of Phoenix in August, when he returned home from his tour of duty. Rufus went to live with another soldier in Georgia.
Target was featured on 'Oprah' in September in a show about amazing animals.
On Friday of last week the dog escaped from the family's backyard. Sgt Young then put out notices and contacted TV stations that did reports on the missing dog.
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