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Grizzly Arrives in America
 A few hours ago, Grizzly completed her long journey to her new home in America. After spending a week in Pakistan, she flew first to New York's JFK airport where she cleared customs. She then flew to Chicago, where my uncle Don, aunt Clova, and cousin Katy picked her up at O'Hare. She's now staying in Illinois with my team's medic, who already finished his tour with us as part of the Illinois National Guard. The plan is for Doc to take care of her until I myself get back to the US at my next assignment in Seattle. We didn't rush into this process of bringing Grizzly home- I'm sure that the month+ of traveling she's had to date wasn't entirely pleasant, and obviously we've spent a lot of money to do this. We incurred those expenses knowing the outcome was uncertain- Grizzly was never around other dogs before, so maybe she wouldn't get along with them. She's never traveled in a vehicle before- maybe she'd be one of those dogs who loathes travel. Heck, it's a long trip back from here for humans to make- and Pamela Constable's service was something we didn't have any references on. But Pam proved to be extraordinarily helpful and resourceful, and seemed to manage the logistics of getting Grizzly from the Pakistan border to Chicago pretty easily. (Truly, the world is flat!)  And I just received this email from my mother, who has also helped coordinate for payments and scheduling of the different legs: Grizzly "was very easy with Don and Clova and Katy. After they got her in the car from the airport she looked out of the car window for a while, then nestled into Katyâ??s lap and fell asleep. They had to stop at their house on the way to meet Jason (the combat medic), to feed their dogs and give their kitty her insulin shot so Grizzly got to meet Aero (Don's dog) and they got along well, according to Clova. She said it was cute, because Aero is black and Grizzly is white. Then when they met up with Jason, Grizzly went right to him and knew him." Jason also emailed to say that Grizzly was extremely at ease, and slept the entire way home. From all the uncertainty of Afghanistan right now, it is good to know that at least this Afghan story has a happy ending. We are grateful to all of you who have supported this endeavour in one way or another.  Pictures of Grizzly in the US will follow- for now, here are some more shots of her in Afghanistan.
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How One Rescues A Dog From Afghanistan
 The above pictures is one of my favorites of Grizzly, from the night when we first got her. I don't think she was weaned yet, and that's me trying to improvise a bottle with shelf-stable milk, a water bottle with the top cut off, and a shop rag with a rubber band.In this post, Iâ??ll describe the process weâ??re using to rescue Grizzly from Afghanistan. But first, an update on Grizzly herself.Earlier this week, I received an update that Grizzly is alive and well in Kabul, getting oriented to a kennel in preparation for her move to Kabul.I also received this picture of her in her pen there. In the email, I also learned that Grizzly is sharing her pen with another dog, who she gets along well with. This is good news; Grizzly has never been around another dog before, and I was worried about how sheâ??d react. Apparently, her sweet disposition extends to canines as well as humans.In the next few days, Grizzly will travel in her new kennel to another shelter in Pakistan. Sheâ??ll get there via the Khyber Pass- Kiplingâ??s â??sword cut through the mountainsâ?? - it is neat to think of her in such storied surroundings. I hope the Afridis let her through!
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How One Rescues A Dog from Afghanistan Part II
Now some background on how one rescues a dog from Afghanistan.When I first began research on how to do this, I came across a website called Operation Baghdad Pups, run by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty towards Animals (SPCA). This organization helps get dogs out of Iraq. I believe they also cover the costs associated with this- but only in Iraq.In yet another example of how Afghanistan is the un-resourced war compared to Iraq, Baghdad Pupsâ?? supports Iraq, but not Afghanistan. However, when I contacted them, an SPCA rep was kind enough to direct me to Pamela Constable in Kabul.Pamela runs an animal shelter in Kabul called Tigger House- among other activities; Tigger House is essentially a one-stop shop for a US serviceperson trying to rescue a dog from Afghanistan.The logistics of the trip as simple as the costs for it are expensive.Step 1 is getting the dog from wherever you are to Kabul, as discussed in the previous post. Once in Kabul at Tigger House, Pamela and her all-Afghan staff ensure the dog is healthy enough to travel. (The all-Afghan staff is important- not only does it crucial provide employment to Afghans, it also means their work here is sustainable- those skills will remain after the current foreign presence is gone).
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How One Rescues A Dog From Afghanistan Part III
Step 2 is traveling from Kabul to Pakistan. Tigger House arranges this, either by ground or by air, and the dog travels in its kennel to another shelter in Pakistan.Step 3 is traveling from Pakistan to the United States. After a week or two, the Pakistani shelter ships the dog, again in its kennel, to JFK International in New York City. Once the dog arrives at JFK, you can either pick the dog up yourself, or arrange for someone at Delta Airlines to meet the dog and ship it to its ultimate destination.In Grizzlyâ??s case, she will travel to JFK and then Peoria Regional Airport in Illinois, where our teamâ??s medic will meet her. Our medic is from the Illinois National Guard, and he has already redeployed having completed his tour (the rest of us still have another month or so). Doc has graciously offered to take care of Grizzly until I can get back to the States myself- one of Docâ??s good friends is a vet, who volunteered to get her caught up on any health care needs that sheâ??s missed growing up in Afghanistan.Lastly, in researching this post, I discovered that Pamela Constable does much more than run Tigger House- she is an accomplished foreign correspondent for The Washington Post as well. She obviously does her work with Tigger House out of a genuine concern for the region she reports on, both for the Afghans who work at the house, the animals cared for in it, and the US servicemembers who she is so helpful to.Her generous compassion, like that of all of you who are supporting us in this effort, humbles and comforts us here in Afghanistan.Thank you.
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How One Rescues A Dog From Afghanistan Part III
Here are some links about Pamela and her work:
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Grizzly Arrives Safely in Kabul
Thank you to everyone who has generously contributed to our effort so far!
In a surprising demonstration that the world really is flat, I'm finding that so far, getting a dog out of Afghanistan is logistically fairly easy. I'll detail the process of it in a later post.
For now, I wanted to update you on step 1: getting the dog to Kabul. This is actually the most difficult or at least dangerous part. For me myself to leave the base requires a deliberately planned mission- and I don't think our chain-of-command would support us driving a dog up Highway 1 to Kabul, especially since they're the ones who want the dog shot in the face in the first place.
Getting shot in the face yourself while attempting to save a dog would also carry an unneeded dose of irony - war has enough of that already.
So that leaves transporting the dog with local nationals. Afghans don't universally hate dogs, though some religious fanatics do, considering a dog to be unclean like pork or a Christian. I should emphasize this is an extreme interpretation not shared by all or even most Afghans.
Anyways, to transport the dog, you have to hire a local. The local has to be willing to not only transport the dog, but also brave the 6-10 hour drive on Highway One with the dog in his car, and where he stands a good chance of being stopped by an insurgent checkpoint and having to explain why he's transporting a dog. (I have no idea what you'd say, other than assuming you wouldn't say it's for an American).
The contractors we hire for various errands like this also know there is great demand and small quantity for local "fixing," resulting in near universal price-gauging for services as simple as buying printer ink to complex jobs like constructing buildings.
Thus there's a cost associated with this step- I was told to expect to pay between $300 and $400 USD.
I asked a contractor who we frequently work with, who I expected would do the work but who would charge as much as he could for it.
The contractor told me mashkil n'est, no problem. He'd do it, and he said he'd stop by the base within a few days as he wanted to say goodbye to my team at the end of our tour.
He did come by, and I expected the typical contractor experience of him naming an exorbitant price, followed by the details.
Instead, he invited me and some of my teammates to dinner to discuss the arrangements. The dinner was one of the best I've had here- a beef stew that rivaled my uncle Albert's Flemish stew. The beer in the picture is a raspberry-flavored non-alcoholic, similar to Kreik but without the kick.
After the dinner, he asked if the dog could be ready the next morning. When I asked for a price, he simply said, "Your team has been good friends to the Afghans in my home district. I will do this for free to show my gratitude."
The next morning, I got up early to get Grizzly ready to go. I couldn't find her anywhere on the camp though- at first I worried she knew something was up and was hiding. I searched high and low to no avail, and after forty minutes with our meeting time at hand, I prepared to tell the contractor to leave without her. I walked down to the gate where his car was parked, and there sat Grizzly, as if she already knew the plan.
Riding in the car with her was one of the Afghan employees who works in our kitchen, heading back to his home in Kabul to celebrate Eid al Fitar with his family. Every day when he goes to throw out the leftovers from dinner, he first makes a plate to feed Grizzly, so I'm glad she had a friendly face riding with her on the first leg of her trip home. I received an email from the rescue agency that Grizzly safely arrived in good shape yesterday.
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Save Grizzly!
Eight months ago, a caravan of nomadic Kuchis transited through a remote region of south-east Afghanistan. In the bitter winter of the Kandahar highlands, the nomads left behind two puppies near the local bazaar.
Afghan National policemen in the area found the puppies, and brought them to our team's nearby command post. We are a sixteen-man element embedded in an Afghan National Army battalion as combat advisors- at the time, our small element comprised half of the US forces between Afghanistan's Ring Road and Pakistan.
One of the puppies died shortly after coming to us; the other, we named Grizzly and adopted as our team mascot.
Grizzly grew up into a part of our team. Never trained to a leash, whenever an American left our camp, she was at his heels until he came back. Once, we learned to keep her inside the command post when one of our mounted patrols left- that day, she followed a patrol over five miles along a not very safe road. She's also accompanied several night ambush patrols- she does a good job staying quiet on those. After we learned to keep her shut in during our departures, Grizzly was always first to greet us on our return.
Now at the end of our tour, our small team is being replaced by a regular Army company. They are good people, but their unit has a strict policy against dogs. Accordingly, we discovered three days ago that they planned on shooting Grizzly once we leave.
Now we're attempting to get her home to America. We've made friends with plenty of locals during this tour, but we fear that if she stays anywhere around here, she'll make her way back to our replacements and no good could come of that. In the same vein, she has been raised by American hands since infancy- Afghan culture treats dogs differently than ours, and we don't think she'd fare well on the other side.
Rescuing dogs from here is possible, but expensive. We first have to get Grizz to Kabul, and once there, she'll be vacinated and prepared for overseas travel. From Kabul, Grizzly will travel by land to Pakistan, and spend close to a month in quarantine before continuing by air to the United States and to one of our homes. Total cost for this operation is $3,400 USD.
We're prepared to cover these costs out of pocket- we figure Grizzly deserves some of the pay we've earned here while she shared our deployment with us. That being said, we appreciate any support our friends can make to help us rescue Grizzly.
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