A yearlong separation is a difficult one for those family members who understand exactly what's going on with a deployment, ut many forget about the soldier's pets.
Where do they go when there's a deployment and there's no family to watch them? Take them to the pound? Put them up for adoption? Now there's a group that helps foster military pets until their owners come home.
That's what happened to SSgt. Greg Walk from North Carolina, who was deployed to Afghanistan for a year.
A Pennsylvania family to whom Walk is not related took care of the his dog, who was just a puppy when the National Guardsman deployed in August, 2012, all thanks to the Canine Corps.
The group pairs dogs of soldiers with families who will provide no-cost pet care during the time away at war.