Sasha was first found in December of 2009 at about 2-3 months old. She was found as a stray dog at the entrance to a patrol base, scavenging for food.

The American lads attempted to befriend her but the Afghan stray was having none of it until beef jerky was offered. At first the female dog was wary but finally Sasha would cautiously nibble the offered jerky straight from the soldier’s hands.

The American soldiers took good care of their new Afghan four legged friend who enjoyed herself no end chasing the chickens around their pen or rounding up the goats.

As the US soldiers said themselves “We became attached to Sasha and she really made deployment much more bearable for us”.

When the lads left to go on patrol Sasha would whine and howl until they came back and even found a way to leap the fence to trot out by their side at times!

With no help from the military to transport Sasha home to the US the lads turned to Nowzad Dogs – the only other option would be for Sasha to be returned to the streets when the soldiers were rotated home.

With the location of the soldier’s base and the dangerous journey to the rescue shelter we all sat nervously waiting for news of the Sasha’s arrival at the shelter.

Sadly it never came. With no other choice but to use a local driver to smuggle Sasha through Taliban held areas the Afghan driver was forced to hide the loving Afghan stray in the boot of his car. The heat was too much and Sasha died of heat exhaustion before she could reach the safety of the shelter.

All of us at the charity are gutted that we were unable to save Sasha. Life is not fair at the best of times and to us this is one more example of the innocent victims of war. But it does make us even more determined to rescue as many more adopted companion animals as we can.