Clayton Clayton's happy to be back in Maine with Nancy Dalton, who flew to Hawaii to get her daughter's dog. (Photo Paula Gibbs)

Clayton has returned to his home in Wiscasset - another casualty - or perhaps, a blessing of the War in Iraq.

If there can be any good that comes out of sending our young military people off to war, it may be that their pets qualify for long-term leave, in this case, with grandparents.

Several months ago, Nancy Dalton learned that both her daughter, Julie Friets, and her husband, David, were both to be deployed from Hawaii for the second time, leaving their five-year-old dog, Clayton, behind. During their first deployment the couple had found a number of friends to take care of him until they returned to Honolulu.

Clayton, a flat-coated retriever, had spent the first two years of his life living in Wiscasset with Julie. Then it was off to Hawaii where the three were together until the first deployment, when Clayton was placed with friends until their return. Imagining Clayton's life being disrupted once again was a bit too much. Nancy's grandmotherly instinct and her love for animals kicked in.

"My husband and I decided Clayton had been through enough insecurity," she said. So they hatched the idea of flying to Hawaii to bring him back to Maine. Asked how she proposed the idea to her daughter, Nancy said, "I just said, `Don't you think Clayton's been through enough? Why don't you let him come home and stay with Grampie and Grammies.' "

Julie thought it was a great idea.

"She'll miss him, but she's happy knowing he's happy here with us," Nancy says.

So at the end of May, Nancy and her sister, Susan Gray, who lives in Alna, hopped a plane to Hawaii to carry out their rescue mission. Of course, since they were going to be in one of the world's most beautiful places, they spent about a week there, doing some traveling and sightseeing.

The morning that David had to drive Clayton to the airport and drop him off at the cargo terminal, while Nancy and Susan were checking in at the passenger terminal was pretty hard, Nancy says. He nearly cried when he bid Clayton good-bye.

To make his 12-hour trip less stressful, they gave Clayton some holistic drops that morning, designed to keep him calm. Apparently it worked, because when the two sisters and Clayton were re-united at Logan, the dog's only complaint seemed to be the need for a drink of water. Nancy's husband picked them all up in Boston, and they were back in Maine on June 5.

Clayton's got it made now - 40 acres to roam around on, and two cats, Smutty and Rocky, to keep him company. Her husband is home most of the time, too. After 33 years in the installation business, he does most of his company work from a home office, and lets their two sons do the outside work.

Nancy would have been home too, had she not retired from Central Maine Power in 2002, and after a few years, gotten totally bored. She started doing volunteer work, last year cleaning cages at the Lincoln County Animal Shelter. When a full time secretarial position opened up at the Edgecomb shelter, she decided this was the perfect job.

And, she says, it still is.

"People say to me, `Don't you want to take all the animals home with you?' And I say, `no, I'm with them all day.' "

And Clayton? He's doing splendidly. Not only does he have his 40 acres, he also gets to go to the camp on weekends.

Ahhh, a dog's life.