thedrifter
03-25-08, 07:25 AM
War's 4-legged victims
Published: Tuesday, March 25, 2008
By Adam Silverman
Free Press Staff Writer
CAMBRIDGE -- Nobody could have guessed the frantic 44-day search across Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan for one missing puppy would, through a series of coincidences and connections, help rescue dozens of dogs from war zones overseas.
Nearly two years after a Cambridge woman struggled to assist her brother, a Navy officer, in bringing home a red-furred pooch named Cinnamon, a new organization is easing the process for service members who encounter strays while on duty in Iraq or Afghanistan and want to bring their loyal companions home when they leave -- despite prohibitive military regulations.
Operation Baghdad Pups, launched in November and the only outfit actively rescuing war dogs, is working to save 30 canines and several cats while fielding two or three new inquiries every day, program manager Terri Crisp said.
"This is one of those rare instances where you're not only helping animals, you're helping our soldiers, too," she said. "What better way can we say thank you?"
Crisp, based outside Sacramento, Calif., has made three trips to Baghdad to transport dogs to America, bringing home the most recent group on March 13.
Operation Baghdad Pups, which falls under the umbrella of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International, traces its roots to Cinnamon, a mixed breed whose gaze redefines the term puppy-dog eyes.
Her tempestuous journey to the United States was coordinated in large part by Christine Sullivan of Cambridge, whose brother, former U.S. Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Mark Feffer of Annapolis, Md., fell in love with Cinnamon after meeting the precocious pooch during his first few days on duty.
Saving dogs in similar predicaments has become a mission for Baghdad Pups and a passion for Sullivan.
"They provide our troops with a connection to home. They provide a distraction. They give unconditional love and support," Sullivan, 46, said on a snowy March afternoon as her two dogs, which she adopted from stateside shelters, napped on plush beds near the wood stove in her living room. "To be left behind, not knowing if anybody is coming for them, is not the right thing to do. They care for our men and women.
"If we have an opportunity to give a better life to an animal from over there that has given unconditionally," she continued, "that's what we should do." Cinnamon's story
Feffer, a 43-year-old information-technology salesman and lifelong dog lover, first saw Cinnamon shortly after he landed in January 2006 at a U.S. forward operating base in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
"I was walking to a meeting and out from underneath one of the buildings this little puppy comes running," Feffer said. "I'm looking around going, 'Where'd this dog come from? Who's taking care of her? Can we play with her?'"
Despite military regulations banning troops from caring for strays, Feffer's unit took in the pooch. Service members fed her, walked her and gave her chew toys. She wandered the base and occasionally interrupted briefings, including one, Feffer recalled, where Cinnamon sauntered to the front of the room, plopped down next to him and looked as though she were about to bark out orders to the men.
When his deployment ended that June, and with the consent of his comrades, Feffer decided to adopt Cinnamon. Aware of rules prohibiting him from bringing the dog home himself, Feffer sought help from a private government contractor.
That's where the trouble began.
The contractor transported Cinnamon from Afghanistan to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, but he couldn't get the dog onto a civilian flight to the United States. He abandoned her at the airport. Feffer and Sullivan thought the puppy was lost forever.
"I cried so hard," Sullivan said. "I was heartbroken."
She also became motivated. Sullivan contacted the SPCA's Crisp, whom she met the previous fall while working along the Gulf Coast to rescue animals displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Crisp linked Sullivan with a representative of the World Society for the Protection of Animals who happened to live in Bishkek. That woman unraveled the mystery.
An airline employee had come to the abandoned Cinnamon's aid and given the pooch to a local family. Delicate cross-cultural negotiations, coupled with the efforts of Mike Blake, a sympathetic chief master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Reserve stationed at a nearby airbase, resulted in the completion of Cinnamon's six-week voyage to Feffer's Maryland home.
"It's such a strange mixture of elation and disbelief," Feffer said. "Occasionally I'll go in and look at her and say, 'You're here. I can't believe it.'"
More animals follow
At first, Crisp thought Cinnamon would be a one-shot situation. But the SPCA continually heard stories about other military members who spirited dogs out of Iraq and Afghanistan, or wanted to but encountered roadblocks. Then, last September, a sergeant called to ask for assistance in saving Charlie, a stray his unit had befriended.
The SPCA founded Operation Baghdad Pups two months later to facilitate Charlie's trip. The canine arrived in the United States on Valentine's Day and is scheduled to travel today Tuesdayto Fort Bragg, N.C., for a reunion with the soldier who adopted him, said Stephanie Scroggs, a Baghdad Pups and SPCA spokeswoman.
Cinnamon's perilous journey provided lessons that have made the trips smoother for dogs that followed. Sullivan and Feffer advised Baghdad Pups and, along with Cinnamon, were on hand when Charlie made his entrance at Dulles International Airport in Washington.
"We illustrate what can go wrong. We're the poster child for the importance of having such a resource," Feffer said. "What a difference that would have made for us."
The Pentagon referred an inquiry about the program to a U.S. Central Command spokesman in Baghdad. Spc. Charles Espie declined to comment on Operation Baghdad Pups, but referenced a Central Command general order banning troops from "adopting as pets or mascots, caring for, or feeding any type of animal."
"Technically speaking," Espie wrote in an e-mail, "it is against policy. And yes, there have been plenty of exceptions to that rule."
Anecdotal evidence suggests hundreds of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have rescued dogs from Afghanistan and Iraq, Scroggs said.
Baghdad Pups has brought to America five more Iraqi canines since Charlie's homecoming: K-Pot and Liberty in February, and Bags, Oreo and Socks in mid-March. The dogs are vaccinated, and then Crisp accompanies them out of the country. The organization spends $4,000 to $6,000 per rescue and raises money through donations and a partnership with an animal-advocacy and retail Web site, Ilovedogs.com, Scroggs said.
Sullivan, who chronicled Cinnamon's adventure in a self-published book, "44 Days Out of Kandahar: The Amazing Journey of a Missing Military Puppy and the Desperate Search to Find Her, " is donating her profits to the cause.
Crisp is the operation's only member to travel overseas -- her next destination is Afghanistan -- but a volunteer might join the mission soon, she said.
The cost and the effort pay dividends for rescuers and for service members, those involved said.
"The last thing we need to do is ask our soldiers to sacrifice a friend that helped them get through," Scroggs said. "Our soldiers have sacrificed enough."
That's why Baghdad Pups, which Crisp said is "not trying to be defiant" of military regulations, plans to approach the Defense Department to seek official recognition -- and a policy change.
Contact Adam Silverman at 660-1854 or asilverm@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
Ellie
Published: Tuesday, March 25, 2008
By Adam Silverman
Free Press Staff Writer
CAMBRIDGE -- Nobody could have guessed the frantic 44-day search across Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan for one missing puppy would, through a series of coincidences and connections, help rescue dozens of dogs from war zones overseas.
Nearly two years after a Cambridge woman struggled to assist her brother, a Navy officer, in bringing home a red-furred pooch named Cinnamon, a new organization is easing the process for service members who encounter strays while on duty in Iraq or Afghanistan and want to bring their loyal companions home when they leave -- despite prohibitive military regulations.
Operation Baghdad Pups, launched in November and the only outfit actively rescuing war dogs, is working to save 30 canines and several cats while fielding two or three new inquiries every day, program manager Terri Crisp said.
"This is one of those rare instances where you're not only helping animals, you're helping our soldiers, too," she said. "What better way can we say thank you?"
Crisp, based outside Sacramento, Calif., has made three trips to Baghdad to transport dogs to America, bringing home the most recent group on March 13.
Operation Baghdad Pups, which falls under the umbrella of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International, traces its roots to Cinnamon, a mixed breed whose gaze redefines the term puppy-dog eyes.
Her tempestuous journey to the United States was coordinated in large part by Christine Sullivan of Cambridge, whose brother, former U.S. Navy Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Mark Feffer of Annapolis, Md., fell in love with Cinnamon after meeting the precocious pooch during his first few days on duty.
Saving dogs in similar predicaments has become a mission for Baghdad Pups and a passion for Sullivan.
"They provide our troops with a connection to home. They provide a distraction. They give unconditional love and support," Sullivan, 46, said on a snowy March afternoon as her two dogs, which she adopted from stateside shelters, napped on plush beds near the wood stove in her living room. "To be left behind, not knowing if anybody is coming for them, is not the right thing to do. They care for our men and women.
"If we have an opportunity to give a better life to an animal from over there that has given unconditionally," she continued, "that's what we should do." Cinnamon's story
Feffer, a 43-year-old information-technology salesman and lifelong dog lover, first saw Cinnamon shortly after he landed in January 2006 at a U.S. forward operating base in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
"I was walking to a meeting and out from underneath one of the buildings this little puppy comes running," Feffer said. "I'm looking around going, 'Where'd this dog come from? Who's taking care of her? Can we play with her?'"
Despite military regulations banning troops from caring for strays, Feffer's unit took in the pooch. Service members fed her, walked her and gave her chew toys. She wandered the base and occasionally interrupted briefings, including one, Feffer recalled, where Cinnamon sauntered to the front of the room, plopped down next to him and looked as though she were about to bark out orders to the men.
When his deployment ended that June, and with the consent of his comrades, Feffer decided to adopt Cinnamon. Aware of rules prohibiting him from bringing the dog home himself, Feffer sought help from a private government contractor.
That's where the trouble began.
The contractor transported Cinnamon from Afghanistan to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, but he couldn't get the dog onto a civilian flight to the United States. He abandoned her at the airport. Feffer and Sullivan thought the puppy was lost forever.
"I cried so hard," Sullivan said. "I was heartbroken."
She also became motivated. Sullivan contacted the SPCA's Crisp, whom she met the previous fall while working along the Gulf Coast to rescue animals displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Crisp linked Sullivan with a representative of the World Society for the Protection of Animals who happened to live in Bishkek. That woman unraveled the mystery.
An airline employee had come to the abandoned Cinnamon's aid and given the pooch to a local family. Delicate cross-cultural negotiations, coupled with the efforts of Mike Blake, a sympathetic chief master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Reserve stationed at a nearby airbase, resulted in the completion of Cinnamon's six-week voyage to Feffer's Maryland home.
"It's such a strange mixture of elation and disbelief," Feffer said. "Occasionally I'll go in and look at her and say, 'You're here. I can't believe it.'"
More animals follow
At first, Crisp thought Cinnamon would be a one-shot situation. But the SPCA continually heard stories about other military members who spirited dogs out of Iraq and Afghanistan, or wanted to but encountered roadblocks. Then, last September, a sergeant called to ask for assistance in saving Charlie, a stray his unit had befriended.
The SPCA founded Operation Baghdad Pups two months later to facilitate Charlie's trip. The canine arrived in the United States on Valentine's Day and is scheduled to travel today Tuesdayto Fort Bragg, N.C., for a reunion with the soldier who adopted him, said Stephanie Scroggs, a Baghdad Pups and SPCA spokeswoman.
Cinnamon's perilous journey provided lessons that have made the trips smoother for dogs that followed. Sullivan and Feffer advised Baghdad Pups and, along with Cinnamon, were on hand when Charlie made his entrance at Dulles International Airport in Washington.
"We illustrate what can go wrong. We're the poster child for the importance of having such a resource," Feffer said. "What a difference that would have made for us."
The Pentagon referred an inquiry about the program to a U.S. Central Command spokesman in Baghdad. Spc. Charles Espie declined to comment on Operation Baghdad Pups, but referenced a Central Command general order banning troops from "adopting as pets or mascots, caring for, or feeding any type of animal."
"Technically speaking," Espie wrote in an e-mail, "it is against policy. And yes, there have been plenty of exceptions to that rule."
Anecdotal evidence suggests hundreds of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have rescued dogs from Afghanistan and Iraq, Scroggs said.
Baghdad Pups has brought to America five more Iraqi canines since Charlie's homecoming: K-Pot and Liberty in February, and Bags, Oreo and Socks in mid-March. The dogs are vaccinated, and then Crisp accompanies them out of the country. The organization spends $4,000 to $6,000 per rescue and raises money through donations and a partnership with an animal-advocacy and retail Web site, Ilovedogs.com, Scroggs said.
Sullivan, who chronicled Cinnamon's adventure in a self-published book, "44 Days Out of Kandahar: The Amazing Journey of a Missing Military Puppy and the Desperate Search to Find Her, " is donating her profits to the cause.
Crisp is the operation's only member to travel overseas -- her next destination is Afghanistan -- but a volunteer might join the mission soon, she said.
The cost and the effort pay dividends for rescuers and for service members, those involved said.
"The last thing we need to do is ask our soldiers to sacrifice a friend that helped them get through," Scroggs said. "Our soldiers have sacrificed enough."
That's why Baghdad Pups, which Crisp said is "not trying to be defiant" of military regulations, plans to approach the Defense Department to seek official recognition -- and a policy change.
Contact Adam Silverman at 660-1854 or asilverm@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
Ellie