Chapter 494: PTSD
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Walking from cage to cage, the police dogs’ memory barriers were completely open to Famous.
There was no doubt that X had strong willpower. No matter how many times it fainted from a heat stroke, no matter how many injuries it had, X’s state of mind wasn’t affected. X deserved to be praised as a “Dog Warrior.”
However, the German Shepherd in Cage 5 wasn’t so tough.
Famous walked to Cage 5. To Famous’s surprise, it found that the German Shepherd was shivering in the corner, using its two front paws to cover its ears, and staring at Famous in horror.
Is this really a police dog? thought Famous.
Famous’s was doubtful. It had seen a lot of police dogs, some were tough, like X, and some were gentle, like Luo Luo. Even so, Luo Luo wasn’t as scared of Famous as the dog in Cage 5. However, Famous had heard that when Galaxy arrived at the pet shop, it was similar to this police dog.
The police dog in Cage 5 was Zhan Tian.
With its tall and muscular shape, Zhan Tian seemed more domineering than Big Teeth. Zhan Tian had also trained, just like X.
Zhan Tian was astonishingly young, it seemed to be even younger than X, not yet seven years old. In addition, Zhan Tian was not suffering from any physical injury.
Famous grew increasingly perplexed. A police with its experience, strength, and lack of injuries should’ve at least been seven years old. Why had Zhan Tian been sent to a police dog nursing home so young?
Normally, Zhan Tian would be dispatched to the border areas to become border defense police dog or an police dog in the hinterland so that it could arrest criminals and perform good deeds.
In fact, with its excellent pedigree and mighty appearance, Zhan Tian had been favored since birth. People thought that it would become the best police dog of its generation, the domineering, Zhan Tian, which literally meant fighting against nature.
Zhan Tian was clever and brave, its grades were top-notch, and it was stronger than X. Finally, Zhan Tian was assigned to a special anti-terrorism police unit.
In the new era, terrorism replaced border conflicts and became the greatest threat to national security. Zhan Tian should have performed well in the anti-terrorism police unit.
Zhan Tian had been rigorously trained, but the training of the anti-terrorism police unit was more intense, more professional, and specifically optimized for anti-terrorism in cities.
From Zhan Tian’s fragmented memory, Famous saw that it had used many interesting gadgets, such as a high-tech vest for police dogs. The vest, equipped with a camera and microphone that captured real-time images and sounds, could wirelessly transmit photos and videos to a hand-held device as far as 1 kilometer away. Even in urban areas, the distance the wireless transmission could reach was about 200 meters.
The camera was waterproof, had night-vision, and it could be operated in all types of weathers. With a tiny speaker near the police dog’s head, trainer commands could be issued remotely.
The manufacturer of the vest did not want to make the extra weight affect the police dog’s flexibility, so the built-in battery guaranteed half an hour of working time, which was sufficient for the anti-terrorism tasks.
There were more high-tech equipment, like this vest, and each one was custom-made for the police dogs for a steep price. Looking at the prices of the gadgets, Famous knew that only the best police dogs were allowed to join the anti-terrorism special unit.
Zhan Tian was not just strong, but also very clever. It had grasped the function of the high-tech gadgets in no time. Every police officer in the anti-terrorism special unit agreed that Zhan Tian would become the best police dog in the unit.
As the training reached an end, the police officers used the actual combats against terrorists, both at home and abroad, to train the police dogs.
One day, something happened to Zhan Tian. The accident didn’t cause any physical injuries.
Training Test: Combat Against Terrorists in Urban Streets.
Training Intensity: Quasi-Live Ammunition.
In this simulation, Zhan Tian followed a small group of SWAT police officers and entered an old building that had been occupied by terrorists. They started to search for the terrorists floor-by-floor and room-by-room.
Zhan Tian’s sense of smell played a significant role, it led the team and found the room where the terrorists were hiding.
According to intelligence, the terrorists were armed with guns. Strategically, the police officers had to throw a flash bomb into the room before going in to subdue the terrorists.
All the weapons, were fake and there were rubber bullets in the guns so it wouldn’t harm anyone. However, the flash bomb thrown into the room was genuine.
When the flash bomb exploded, its loud noise and bright light could temporarily deafen and blind the people in the room.
That’s where the problem lied. The SWAT team knew to turn their heads and open their mouths to avoid the strong light and impact of sound waves.
Zhan Tian didn’t know about the precautions. It was a dog whose hearing was 16 times more sensitive than that of humans.
When the SWAT team threw the flash bomb and barged into the room, the courageous Zhan Tian was eager to enter the room, to fight the criminals. Although it was halted by a police officer near the door, the flash bomb still affected Zhan Tian.
This is where Zhan Tian’s memory got a bit hazy. There was a white light, and its ears were buzzing. In the intense white light, the figures of the SWAT team were overlapping and moving in slow motion.
Zhan Tian did very well at the beginning of the simulation, but its performance near the end was way below its usual standard. The SWAT police officers and instructors didn’t take this matter seriously because they thought that Zhan Tian performed well enough in the usual training session. They believed that Zhan Tian was just exhausted.
Zhan Tian was sent to rest for a few days. However, in another simulation, several days later, Zhan Tian made a huge mistake.
In this simulation, Zhan Tian barked in horror as soon as it saw a flash bomb in a police officer’s hand, exposing the position of the SWAT team to the criminals. As a result, the SWAT team failed to rescue the hostages and every police officer was killed.
From that day on, Zhan Tian was rebuffed by everyone, including its trainer.
Nevertheless, due to Zhan Tian’s excellent performance prior to the accident, the instructors in the police force did not completely abandon Zhan Tian. They let Zhan Tian rest for a longer period, and then tried to make Zhan Tian useful by involving it in the simple training sessions.
However, the extended rest failed to bring Zhan Tian back to normal. Instead, its performance was getting worse. It often stopped suddenly when running and suspiciously looked around. Every time it heard gunshots, it ran to the corner and shivered. Zhan Tian had turned into the joke of the anti-terrorism police unit.
Zhan Tian was ultimately abandoned by everyone, even its owner.
The leader of the anti-terrorism police unit approved Zhan Tian’s advanced retirement. No one adopted it because no one wanted to adopt a coward.
After many twists and turns, the once-praised Zhan Tian was thrown away to the police dog nursing home and started to live in isolation in Cage 5. Whenever strangers came close to its cage, Zhan Tian would cower in the corner and shudder.
Although Zhan Tian’s body was intact, its heart was broken.
Famous looked at Zhan Tian.
In a sense, Zhan Tian was just like X. Zhan Tian also a guard dog defending its homeland, forced to retire because of wounds. X bravely rescued its owner and was hit by a bullet, and later treated with honor and respect. Zhan Tian didn’t suffer from a physical injury, but it was treated so badly.
This was so unfair.
Most retired police dogs still had feelings for their owners, but Zhan Tian didn’t. Its owner had abandoned it and it had accepted the fact.
Famous could not bear to let this poor police dog continue being scared. Famous left it alone and went to Cage 6.
Just then, the footsteps of a few people sounded from in front of the kennel. Famous could tell it was Zhang Zian.
Zhang Zian and Old Yang thought that Fu Tao could be the right person to take care of the German Shepherds. Before they made a decision, Zhang Zian and Old Yang wanted to inspect the kennel to see how clean it was and how dogs were treated.
So, Fu Tao led them to the kennel.
Zhang Zian was relieved to see Famous. “Famous, you came to the kennel by yourself? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
Fu Tao gently said, “I told you not to worry about it. It wouldn’t run outside when the gate is closed.”
Zhang Zian smiled shyly. Old Yang defended him. “If I had such a dog, I would also be nervous. The whole crew thinks of this dog as a treasure.”
Fu Tao whispered in disdain, “So cocky. You don’t think my nursing home has dogs that have been participated in movies?”
Zhang Zian thought Fu Tao’s temper was like a child’s, so he didn’t mind his remark. He and Old Yang walked from Cage 1 to Cage 4. Since they didn’t have Famous’s ability, the dogs in the cages all looked normal to them. They stopped in front of Cage 4 and observed X longer than the others because of its proud look and its disabled hind leg.
When they came to Cage 5, Famous barked at Zhang Zian, “Something’s wrong with it.”
Zhang Zian and Old Yang had also noticed that the German Shepherd in Cage 5 was extremely timid and very afraid of strangers. Was it really a police dog?
The first thing that occurred to Zhang Zian’s mind was whether this dog had been subjected to Fu Tao’s abuse. Generally, only dogs that had been severely abused would be so horrified of people.
If Fu Tao was actually a dog abuser in private, Zhang Zian and Old Yang couldn’t send the German Shepherds here.
However, after careful observation, Zhang Zian didn’t think that dog had been abused as the dog was very healthy and had no visible scars on its body.
Famous softly explained, “It’s been like this since it encountered some terrible things in training.”
Zhang Zian was stunned. He couldn’t figure out what the terrible things were. This police dog wasn’t sick or injured. What could be worse than illnesses or wounds?
Old Yang couldn’t help but ask, “Excuse me, what’s wrong with this dog?”
Fu Tao frowned and said, “This dog… In fact, I don’t quite understand what happened to it. I heard people say that this dog was so cowardly that it was almost scared to death in training. No one wants to adopt it, so I took it out of pity.”
As if understanding his words, Zhan Tian lowered its head and whimpered.
As a former trainer, Old Yang disliked gutless dogs the most. He could tolerate stupid dogs, but not gutless dogs. He immediately lost interest in Zhan Tian.
Famous shook its head and denied, “It is not a coward. It’s just sick…in its heart.”
Old Yang and Fu Tao couldn’t understand Famous, but Zhang Zian could and he was more puzzled. When he saw that Fu Tao was about to leave, he stopped Fu Tao and asked, “Master Fu, can you elaborate on how this dog was scared?”
Fu Tao impatiently replied, “I don’t know the specific situation. All I know is that this dog became suddenly a coward.”
Famous whispered, “It was a flash bomb. This dog saw a flash bomb explod.”
Flash bomb?
Zhang Zian was doubtful. Flash bombs were a non-lethal weapon, could a flash bomb really have such a big impact on this dog?
Old Yang was asking Fu Tao some questions about the routine training and raising of the police dogs. Zhang Zian took the opportunity to pull out his cell phone and send a message to Sun Xiaomeng.
Zhang Zian: “Question: If a police dog saw a flash bomb explode at close range, would it be so frightened that it became sick afterwards?”
Sun Xiaomeng did not reply.
Zhang Zian sent 50 Yuan to her.
Sun Xiaomeng: “Generally, police dogs would be fine, but there are exceptions.”
Zhang Zian: “How is it possible? Would police dogs become cowardly? This is a police dog I’m talking about!”
Since Sun Xiaomeng did not reply for a while, Zhang Zian sent her another 100 Yuan along with a message: “Please, tell me all the information I need in one message.”
Sun Xiaomeng: “Such cases are rare in China, but they are often heard among military dogs of the U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Zhang Zian wondered why the matter had anything to do with the U.S. military.
Sun Xiaomeng: “Dogs, like people, have emotions and feelings. Of course, they’d be frightened of certain things. Humans and dogs can suffer from certain mental illnesses, such as PTSD.”
Zhang Zian: “PTSD? What does that mean?”
Sun Xiaomeng: “PTSD is post-traumatic stress disorder. It often occurs in soldiers returning from the battle. With a deep fear of the brutal battlefield, most patients with PTSD cannot continue to live their daily lives normally. PTSD manifests itself as stress, nightmares, abnormal behaviors, etc. In the United States, there have been many cases of killings by veterans returning from battle, and all these veterans are the typical PTSD patient. It’s not just people that suffer from PTSD, dogs can also suffer from PTSD after looking at a sudden strong light or hearing loud noises.”
Zhang Zian: “So, the police dog I referred to may suffer from PTSD because it saw a flash bomb explosion at close range?”
Sun Xiaomeng: “It’s possible.”
Zhang Zian: “What are the specific symptoms of PTSD?”
Sun Xiaomeng: “Records show that, due to frequent threats of car bombs on the battlefield, military dogs returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have become very sensitive. They resist going into cars, hide from people, and refuse to enter any room. If they were forcibly taken into a room, they’d hide under a bed or other furniture, and they’re especially frightened of bearded men. Would you call these veteran dogs, cowards?”
Zhang Zian took his eyes of his phone’s screen and looked at the police dog shuddering in the corner of its cage. According to the symptoms, this police dog was probably suffering from PTSD.
He sent a message to ask: “Is PTSD curable?”
Sun Xiaomeng didn’t reply for a long time. Just when Zhang Zian was about to send her more money, she suddenly replied.
Sun Xiaomeng: “Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to cure PTSD in human beings. I’ve heard that the veterinary hospitals in the U.S. military are implementing a PTSD treatment plan for military dogs. Though the military dogs may not fully recover, they’d be able to carry out simple tasks and live a normal life after leaving the army. However, since China is not involved in any external war, there’s no relevant study of the treatment of PTSD so far.”
Zhang Zian had been squatting, so that he could show Famous the phone screen and narrate his conversation with Sun Xiaomeng to Famous in a low voice.
For some reason, Zhang Zian associated PTSD with Famous. He pretended that he was tired of squatting so he could stand and quickly send a message to Sun Xiaomeng.
Zhang Zian: “Does PTSD only occur to veterans who return from battle?”
Sun Xiaomeng: “No, anyone who’s been traumatized by any cruel or terrifying scene— war, abuse, murder, car accident and so on— can suffer from PTSD.”
Zhang Zian asked: “Can PTSD make people lose their memory?”
Sun Xiaomeng: “Of course, memory loss is an instinctive reaction of humans to protect themselves, a sort of coping mechanism.”
Zhang Zian thoughtfully looked down at Famous and asked her: “What about dogs? If a dog suffers from PTSD, is it possible that they’ve lost their memory?”
Sun Xiaomeng: “How can you know if a dog is an amnesiac?”
Zhang Zian didn’t reply to her. He locked the screen, placed his phone in his pocket, and pretended nothing had happened.
