The war puppies of Afghanistan and Baghdad

USA Today:

Cinnamon is a mixed-breed dog whose gaze, those who love her say, redefines the term puppy-dog eyes.

Navy officer Mark Feffer of Annapolis, Md., fell in love with Cinnamon during his first few days in Afghanistan. When Feffer's tour ended, he couldn't bear to leave Cinnamon behind.

The mission to bring the animal stateside — despite military regulations against doing so — almost ended when the puppy went missing, but after a frantic 44-day search across Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan, the dog arrived safely in the USA.

Two years after the lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve struggled to bring the red-furred pooch home, a program called Operation Baghdad Pups is easing the process for other servicemembers who want to bring stray dogs home when they leave Iraq or Afghanistan.

Launched in November, Operation Baghdad Pups, which operates under the umbrella of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) International, has more than 30 dogs and several cats it is working to bring to the USA, program manager Terri Crisp says. The program fields two or three inquiries daily.

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"This is one of those rare instances where you're not only helping animals, you're helping our soldiers, too," Crisp says. "What better way can we say thank you?"

Cinnamon's journey to the USA was coordinated in large part by Feffer's sister, Christine Sullivan of Cambridge, Vt.

The dogs "provide our troops with a connection to home. … They give unconditional love and support," says Sullivan, 46, who has two dogs she adopted from U.S. shelters.

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When his deployment ended that June, Feffer, aware of the regulations prohibiting him from bringing the dog home himself, asked a private government contractor to help, Sullivan says.

The contractor transported Cinnamon from Afghanistan to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, but couldn't get the dog onto a civilian flight to the USA. So he abandoned her at the airport, Sullivan says. Feffer and Sullivan thought the puppy was lost forever.

"I cried so hard," Sullivan says. "I was heartbroken."

Sullivan contacted the SPCA's Crisp, whom she had 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, and she unraveled the mystery.

An airline employee had given the dog to a local family. Some 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 successful completion of Cinnamon's six-week voyage to Feffer's Maryland home.

"It's such a strange mixture of elation and disbelief," Feffer says. "Occasionally I'll go in and look at her and say, 'You're here. I can't believe it.' "

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They are cheaper than war brides and certainly loyal. It is interesting to see more of these stories pop up recently. Sullivan got it right on the attraction of the dogs that, "provide our troops with a connection to home. … They give unconditional love and support." A friend of mine told me once that dogs never have a bad day unless you give them one. These are certainly giving our troops some good days too.