I read about this story

on the BBC originally, but here is an expanded one that really got me.

A soldier and his dog make a final journey together: Liam and Theo were a team for years — and they died within hours of each other

Liam and Theo were a team, fast friends doing a dangerous job — searching out roadside bombs laid by insurgents in Afghanistan.

The jovial British soldier and his irrepressible dog worked and played together for months, and died on the same day. On Thursday they came home, flown back to Britain in a somber repatriation ceremony for the soldier remembered for his empathy with animals and the companion he loved.

Lance Cpl. Liam Tasker, a dog handler with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, was killed in a firefight with insurgents in Helmand Province on March 1 as he searched for explosives with Theo, a bomb-sniffing springer spaniel mix. The dog suffered a fatal seizure hours later at a British army base, likely brought about by stress.

They were so successful in doing their job that their tour was extended. Theo's ashes will be given to the family of Lance Cpl. Tasker. Both were young--the man 26, the dog 22 months, both vibrant, and inseparable. Indeed, Tasker's uncle said:

"He actually said at one point that when he finished his tour he was not sure what would happen to his dog and that he could be separated from his dog," McCord told the local Courier newspaper in Scotland. "That was preying on his mind, but they are not separated now."

RIP Liam and Theo.