The only difference was this time Paul was able to watch and enjoy the show. She had spent the past year in Afghanistan as an Army medical officer. On this day, she got an idea of what she had been missing out on.

And for that, Paul is forever grateful.

"Finding a home for them took the biggest weight off my mind, beyond fretting over a combat zone," Paul said. "If this service had not been available, and had I not found (the Bentons), I'm not sure what I would have done."

The service that Paul referred to is the Hawaiian Humane Society's Pets of Patriots program, designed to find foster homes to care for pets of deployed military people.

Only a handful of troops have taken advantage of the program, said Jacque Smith, director of community relations for the humane society. That, she said, may be because few military members have known about it until now.

The process is basically this: The humane society matches volunteers to the animals and owners. Volunteers agree to provide a home for the pets while troops are deployed. Some families, like the Bentons, provide e-mails and photos for the troops overseas to help military members such as Paul cope with being away from home.

"I heard about Pets of Patriots on the radio and understood what these military families must be going through," Laura Benton said. "I think of it as co-op baby-sitting.

The Bentons — Will, Laura and 9-year-old daughter Heidi — are a military family, but volunteers can be civilians.

The service started in 2003 as a way to give pet owners a chance to keep their pets despite being deployed.

"(Troops) would bring their pets to the humane society as a last resort," Smith said. "It was so sad to see the goodbyes and all the emotion involved with leaving a pet without knowing what's going to happen to them."

The humane society already places 700 animals in foster care per year, but the staff formed "Pets of Patriots" as another way to help on the home front.

"We knew that there were families who would support our troops by temporarily caring for the pets of men and women serving overseas, so we opened up the program for anyone to join who wants to do something kind for someone," said Kelli Nitahara, outreach program coordinator for the humane society.

Nitahara said that when a family expresses interest in sheltering a military pet, the humane society profiles what type of pet they are willing to take care of, and for how long.

The information is logged into a database and matched to the needs of the military men or women.

Once the match is made, it is up to the two families to determine if the arrangement is comfortable for both of them.

"So far seven military families had taken advantage of this service, and we've placed 14 pets in volunteers' homes," says Nitahara. "We have 35 volunteer families logged in our database waiting to help our troops in this way."

After watching Paul reunite with her dogs — and watching their own dog have playmates for a year — the Bentons are a fan of the program.

"The house is a little more quiet," Heidi Benton said. "We might get another dog because Sam is lonely."

Like old friends

As the dogs play together in the yard behind Paul's house, it is obvious they have adjusted to Paul's return. They come running when she calls.

"Since I got back, Mattie and Mabelline have not left my side," Paul said. "They sleep on the bed with me and follow me into every room."

At the Bentons', however, that was against the rules.

"The dogs fit right in when they first got to our house, but we didn't allow them to sleep on our beds," said Laura Benton. "They didn't like sleeping apart from us, even though they had their own beds downstairs. We'd wake up in the morning and they would be lying right outside our door, ready to play."

Laura said it didn't take them long to bond and become part of the family.

"The challenge was to keep up with Mabelline," Laura said. "When we would walk them, she would pull ahead — eager to move faster. The other two would take their time."

Rogue parrot brought to heel

Volunteers and pet owners are encouraged to consider the ups and downs of a foster placement before arrangements are made.

Paul is grateful she found a home where both dogs could stay. "You can't get a credit card between Mattie and Mabelline, and I wouldn't have wanted to separate them for so long," she said.

But she wasn't as lucky when it came to finding homes for her four exotic birds.

Paul had two cockatoos, a green Amazon parrot and a macaw named Bart.

Of the four families willing to take the birds, two ended up bonding with the animals and adopting them.

"After caring for an animal for a year, it is natural to bond with them," said Paul. "I realized one of my cockatoos and my Amazon parrot would be better off with a good family that loves them. With the extra space, I could help out another abandoned or mistreated bird."

That's how Paul initially found Bart. Six months before she was deployed, Paul adopted the badly misbehaving macaw that would screech piercingly and bite her in anger.

When Bart was matched with Jeanette Ostrow, a volunteer with the humane society for nine years, the bird bit Ostrow on the first meeting.

"That bird hurt me, so I told (Paul) to find someone else," said Ostrow. "But then (Paul) came back and said no one else could do it, and she knew I could."

Ostrow was already taking care of 18 birds, three dogs, 25 turtles and several puppies, but still took Bart into her home. Over the course of the year, she trained him by using a terse tone of voice and calmed him down.

"The difference in his deposition is amazingly obvious," said Paul. "Whatever Jeanette did, it worked. Bart is so much calmer and well behaved."

It didn't come without a price. Ostrow said Bart clawed the furniture and chewed up a tree in the yard. She is not sure she would open her home to another macaw again.

Paul said she has contacted Ostrow to address the cost of damage but is focusing on the positive outcome the Pets of Patriots service has had for her.

As for the humane society's role, Nitahara said it "encourages families to discuss certain details such as costs associated with damage and the pet's general care beforehand.

"At this point the humane society is not responsible for anything more than making the match," Nitahara said. "Food arrangements, specific care and drop-off and pickup times are coordinated between the families."

As for Paul, now that she is back in Hawai'i, she plans to reverse her role and become a volunteer to care for pets of her fellow service men and women who are leaving for overseas.

"The families who took care of my birds and dogs sent me pictures over e-mail that really helped pass my time there," she said, recalling a particular picture sent to her of Mattie wearing a Santa hat during Christmas. " Pets of Patriots kept my family together. If I can help at least one family do that, it's worth it."