WEBVTT

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>> My name is Maya Daniel,
and my title is a CBPO,

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Customs and Border
Protection Officer.

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As an officer, we search and target
international freight

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that's coming into the U.S.,

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searching for illegal contraband
on a nightly basis,

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anything that could possibly be
smuggled into the United States.

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My stepfather was in the military,
and he was a veteran,

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and we lost him
to lung cancer.

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In his memory, he made
me proud of what we did,

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and then I'm, of course, proud of
other veterans for serving the country.

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And I thought,
what a way to reward them,

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even if it was a small
part of their day,

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to come and try and cheer
them up a little bit.

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>> Oh my goodness, oh, my goodness.
Oh, my goodness!

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>> Maya and her pet are an integral
part of our volunteer program.

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I have found in my nine years
of working in voluntary service,

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there are about three things that really
delight our veterans when we come in;

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music, food and pets.

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Anytime you bring pets
into a program

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are where there are veterans,
it tends to lighten the mood.

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They tend to be more expressive,
they're more engaging.

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It just really gets them
to open up more.

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>> When I became a team member with
[INAUDIBLE], we head to Cincinnati,

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we got a choice of which
hospitals to visit.

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We come to the VA down
in Cincinnati once a month.

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The veterans are sometimes
in the hospital for a while,

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and they miss their pets.

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To me, it's a great feeling
to bring Otey down to visit,

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and just have them smile.
They may not know my name,

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but they get to love on the dog,

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and smile and be happy.

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It might just make them
happy for an hour.

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>> It calms people down.
I know that with my own pets at home.

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I would have a bad day, I didn't
have to say anything to anybody.

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They just come around
and they were just there for me.

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>> I think they're visiting
with the veterans here

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is a tremendous asset for them,

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and they get relief
in one way or another.

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>> To me, the veterans have
protected our country as well,

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they put their lives on the line.

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I think it's nice that
we get to come down here

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and bring our pets
and try to cheer them up,

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even if it's just
a little part of their day.