Puppy Rescue Mission: From the War Zone to the Suburbs

By Rachel Belle

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Over the past few months, a local soldier and his
platoon, serving in Afghanistan, have gotten very close
with a stray dog they’ve named Ghost. The soldier’s mom,
Julie Saul, says Ghost has been popping up more and more
on the platoon’s Facebook page.

“They were just saying, ‘It’s amazing. We walk out in
the morning, and she’s waiting for us. She goes on our
patrols. She always seems to be around. She’s a real
inspiration.’ We’re seeing the pictures and hearing about
this really special dog that has adopted them.”

But the platoon is shutting down their outpost, and her
son, who doesn’t want his name used, was worried about
what would happen to Ghost.

“He brought up how awful the dogs are treated there.
They’re not pets, they’re abused, they cut off their ears
and tails to have them be in fights. They’re just really
mistreated. So he was like, ‘Mom, the guys really want to
find a home for the dog. We want to see if we can get her
home.'”

That’s when the soldiers found out about Puppy Rescue Mission.“We help soldiers
who are bringing [home] their battle buddies, which are
not military working dogs, these are locally adopted,
usually feral, native animals, back to the US,” says Puppy
Rescue Mission’s Seattle leader, Anne Howley.

She says the organization has reunited 300 dogs with
their soldiers over the past two years.

“There’s actually a general order not to have pets in a
war zone,” Anne says. “So, once these guys have bonded
with the animal, they don’t want to leave them behind.
Then the logistics for getting it from this God forsaken
war zone, to where we have a safe house kennel in one of
the bigger cities, that’s fraught with a lot of danger.”

But Ghost made it through, and after flying from
Afghanistan to Pakistan to Dubai she caught a 14 hour
flight to Sea-Tac Airport to reunite with Julie, who will
take care of Ghost until her son comes back in January.

“As tough a guy as he is, when he gets around animals
he’s amazingly a pushover.”

Julie brought some of her son’s clothes so that Ghost
would recognize his scent and, soon enough, we were face
to face with Ghost. Julie and the ladies smiled and cooed
at Ghost, who was surprisingly calm for a stray dog who
just got off a long flight. She was amazingly sweet and
friendly and didn’t bark or try and run away. I asked
Julie if having Ghost here made her feel closer to her
son, who is still serving in Afghanistan.

“It totally is going to make me cry. I wish he could be
here for her homecoming. He’s just going to be so
thrilled. I just want to call him and say ‘Look who’s
here!’ But of course there is no way to do that.”

It costs about $3,500 to transport a dog from the
Middle East to the US, so Puppy Rescue Mission takes
donations to help the soldiers out.

“People use PayPal and it’s usually posted through Puppy Rescue Mission’s Facebook page,” Anne
explains. “It has the story, as written by the soldier,
about that animal. Usually within a few days the money’s
raised.”

People often ask her why they spend all that time and
money rescuing a foreign dog, when there are plenty of
strays in the U.S.

“We do get that question a lot. It’s not about that.
It’s about the bond that’s already been created between
these dogs and cats. The soldiers that are over there,
they’re experiencing and seeing things that you and I can
only begin to imagine. Then they come home and here’s this
puppy that’s playing with their boot. It’s that little bit
of normalcy and it’s that thing that you can’t put a price
on. That’s who we’re helping. We’re helping the soldiers
and the animals.”

“It sounds kind of corny to say,” Julie says, “but I
feel honored that he’s entrusted this really cool animal
to me so that she’ll be safe and in one piece when he
comes home. That’s how I want him to come home. Your man’s
got to follow you, Ghost! He’s got to come home as calm
and put together as you!”