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Zoe's mama
07-03-2009, 04:12 AM
I was posting in the general chat about military and pet ownership and I got thinking about Leslie. I was deployed to Iraq in 2003, right at the very beginning of the occupation. My base was really small, only 500 personnel and no mission, we everyone pretty much did whatever we wanted within reason. I only point this out because adopting a pet in a war zone is illegal in military terms. Since no one was really calling the shots, it wasn't inforced. Two months into our deployment, some active duty moran ran over a dog. When inspecting to see if it was dead, he found she was by her nest of puppies. All of the puppies where mostly weaned, so they survived on our MRE's (ready to eat meals). My buddy Hammock was giving Leslie because the guy who originally adopted her was told by his commander that under no circumstances was some dog's yapping going going to be interrupting his beauty sleep. We had a "warehouse" which in reality was a old aircraft hanger and had to man it 24 hours a day. It's was kinda out of way, so it because a perfect place for a barky dog to hang out. Enough rambling by me, here are the photos.

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/raneestaab/leslieplaying-1.jpg

One of the guy's wife sent over some dog toys.

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/raneestaab/DSC01211.jpg

She is sleeping on a frozen bottle of water

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/raneestaab/DSC01187.jpg

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd4/raneestaab/698789707_l.jpg

Leslie and I

She was a lot of peoples dog, but mostly Hammock's and mine. She earned her keep, her barking would alert us if any of the feral dogs were trying to get in the back of the hanger. When I was first over there, mail took two weeks to show up, no phone or internet. A dog was something normal, something to show love and affection and be amused by. One of the guys in my unit send photos to his family, who shared them with his church group. They raised the three thousand dollars to bring her home to the States. I'll have to look though my old photo CD's to find the ones of where is she older and after she came to America. I don't have her of course, she is living with the family of another soldier in my unit, we lost touch so I don't how she is doing.

alcoth
07-03-2009, 08:21 AM
What a great story, thanks for sharing and I'm glad you two could help each other out over there.

BTW: Thank you for your service!

Irish_Lass
07-03-2009, 03:00 PM
Leslie is a cutie. I'm not surprised that people rallied round & raised money to fly her home. Really cool story. :bigok:

katiem
07-03-2009, 05:02 PM
What a beautiful pup, and what a great story. I'm glad it had a happy ending!

krazy4birds
07-03-2009, 05:17 PM
A very wonderful story with a beautiful outcome and I too thank you for serving our country!!!!!