While stationed in Afghanistan, an American soldier had to travel a short distance from the living area to the compound where he worked. There were two “mascot” dogs which lived around his work area and kept other dogs away. These two friendly dogs were Goldie (the mom) and Beethoven (the dad).
Sadly with no neutering policy Goldie became pregnant
On only the second day in country while walking to work an American soldier noticed a rather large dog following slowly behind. Not sure what to make of the dog and fearing the worst she was reassured by a co-worker “Oh, its ok, that’s Beethoven, he always walks us to work.”
Tali had found his way to the Nowzad shelter by a former soldier who had rescued the little man from certain starvation early in 2011. With a character much bigger than his size portrays he was the focal point of the US soldiers down time on their remote fire base. Always up to mischief Tali gave the soldiers a welcome break from the strains of duty.
Sadly the soldier who had first rescued Tali was unable to offer him a ‘forever home’ back in the US and so the poor dog had been at the Nowzad shelter some time while we sourced a suitable home for him.
An emaciated lab/greyhound mix wandered onto the Forward Operating Base (FOB) of Echo Company 334 in Laghman Province, Afghanistan mid February 2011 – her yellow and white fur caked with blood, ribs protruding from lack of nutrition, and belly swollen with puppies. The blood came from a deep trench carved in her neck by the rope embedded there.
She took shelter under a hut at the medic station to deliver her puppies. Delta, as she came to be called, was discovered by a medic who heard a whimpering noise under the hut and was shocked to find the gaunt mother dog and 7 new born puppies. After a decent meal and having the rope carefully extracted from her neck, Delta cleaned up nicely and settled in with her pups – but even at the FOB she wasn’t safe.
Ssgt Garfield is one lucky cat from Southern Afghanistan who had spent his life being cared for by American and Canadian Soldiers. His story in his caregivers own words is below
“Ssgt Garfield has lived on the Regional Command South compound in Kandahar, Afghanistan for at least 2 1/2 years. When I heard about Garfield upon arriving to Kandahar I was thrilled to meet him. At the time he was being cared for by a woman in the British Royal Air Force and an American civilian.
I believe Garfield was named by a gentlemen in the Canadian Army
Paris, Luzi and Houston won the lottery the day they were adopted by a contractor in Southern Afghanistan. From the moment he saw them he knew he had to take them in and care for them and that he wanted to give them a loving forever home in the USA.
After several weeks of email exchanges we were able to arrange for all 3 dogs to be transported to the Nowzad shelter
Rita’s soldier asked for our help in July 2011. Rita was an adorable ‘short legged’ variety of dog from Southern Afghanistan and her and her soldier had formed a bond that could not be broken.
We arranged for Rita to be transported to the shelter in August 2011 and she arrived in good shape although she was a little upset at having to leave her soldier!
Nowzad first learned about Claire in October 2010. She was being taken care of by Marines in a very dangerous area in Helmand, Southern Afghanistan and sadly at the time we were not able to get her to the safety of the Nowzad shelter.
General arrived at the Nowzad shelter as an 8 week old pup with his mother, Delta and his 5 siblings back in March 2011.
General was far too young to travel home tho his soldier at this time so he remained at the Nowzad shelter for several months whilst he received his shots and we raised his funds.
Momma Dog was brought to the attention of Nowzad in April 2011. She has been raised on a British Military camp but new security measures meant she could not come inside camp anymore and she needed a warm safe place to go. Momma was transported to the Nowzad shelter with her 3 puppies and all 3 received the medical treatment they needed to get them up to full health again and then the search to find Momma a home began.
