For three whole months, Army private Hannah Foraker had been
at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, undergoing basic training. So when she returned
home to Cleveland for a visit over Christmas, her canine BFF, Buddy, could
hardly contain her excitement.
“When I came home we let her outside and, at first, she
didn’t realize I was home,” the 21-year-old soldier told ABC News. “Then, she
did a double-take and came back to me. That’s when she started crying and
whimpering. She was so excited.”
Buddy was so “overwhelmed,” Foraker told BuzzFeed, that
she “couldn’t even stand up.”
It was an emotional reunion for both Foraker and Buddy, a
13-year-old golden retriever. Leaving Buddy, who she’d grown up with, had been
particularly heart-wrenching, Foraker said.
“It pulled at my heartstrings, to say goodbye, though having
never actually left home before I didn’t realize the importance of giving
proper goodbyes,” Foraker, now a biomedical equipment specialist at Fort Sam
Houston in San Antonio, told Today.com.
Buddy is mostly deaf and suffers from arthritis, and Foraker
worries the elderly pooch’s condition may worsen before her next visit home in
November. To keep in touch, Foraker uses Skype to connect with the dog and the
rest of her family.
“Even though she doesn’t realize what’s going on, she feeds
off the energetic excitement of the room and my voice through the speaker,”
Foraker told Today.com. “It’s always so sweet when she starts licking the
laptop!”
Foraker recently uploaded the video of her reunion with
Buddy on YouTube. It’s since been viewed more than 2.6 million times. Watch it
above.