His waiting felt not like heaven but something from a bad dream.
"The last couple of days...unknown," said Kirwan.
Kirwan's story went viral after a planned double retirement with Baro, his partner and explosive-sniffing dog, went awry. Paperwork never went through. Until it did, Baro belonged to the TSA.
Instead of taking Baro home on the day of retirement, Kirwan had to surrender him. Both he and the dog were lost and confused by this turn of events. "As far as Baro is concerned, he doesn't know who he belongs to. I feed him. I walk him..."
The problem was traced back to one omitted signature in San Francisco.
Once that was taken care of, retirement could finally begin for both man and dog.