Self Parody Alert - When I read Steyn's hilarious send up of this Kerry statement, I thought he HAD to be making it all up. Nope:

Do you have any pets that have made an impact on you personally?

I have always had pets in my life and there are a few that I remember very fondly.
When I was serving on a swiftboat in Vietnam, my crewmates and I had a dog we called
VC. We all took care of him, and he stayed with us and loved riding on the swiftboat
deck. I think he provided all of us with a link to home and a few moments of peace and
tranquility during a dangerous time. One day as our swiftboat was heading up a river, a
mine exploded hard under our boat. After picking ourselves up, we discovered VC was
MIA. Several minutes of frantic search followed after which we thought we'd lost him.
We were relieved when another boat called asking if we were missing a dog. It turns out
VC was catapulted from the deck of our boat and landed confused, but unhurt, on the
deck of another boat in our patrol.