Rescues

Back in 2016 driving through the streets of downtown Kabul in a bitterly cold January morning, Pen & Hannah along with Dr Mujtaba were alerted to a dog believed to be stuck in a drainage ditch. The weather forecast was for heavy rain later in the day so no time was wasted in locating the dog, not finding them was not an option for the rescue team. 

Back in October 2016 the Nowzad team received an email from a very concerned Afghan man named Mohammad. It read as follows: 

"My name is Mohammad and I am living in Macrorayan, Kabul, Afghanistan.  
It is almost more than 20 days that I am seeing a very unfortunate dog in the streets of 3^rdMacrorayan and he is living in a very bad and disturbing situation.  
He has lost his two behind legs as a result of the cruelty of people and now-a-days he is just walking on the streets with only his 2 front legs.  

My name is PFC Maggie the Cat. Age 6 months

Log entry 19 Sept 2016

In July 2016 I was stationed on an Army Base in Kandahar, Afghanistan where my mission was to find lost and lonely soldiers who missed their families and cheer them up.

My commander explained to me that my job might become dangerous and very lonely. Too soon I learned how true this was.

Spirit was rescued from a degassing station in Iraq in a place called Rumaila by a soldier. 

She was a tiny little puppy all on her own and her eyes were found sealed with mud and sleep. How she was surviving we do not know. 
The soldier cared for this tiny pup, made her better and made her stronger. He reached out to us and we managed to get the puppy to safety through an epic journey across Iraq.

Even with the coalition forces draw down we are still being inundated with requests from soldiers and contractors desperate to find out if they can transport their four legged buddy home with them. 
And thanks to your amazing support we are making that difference and being able to help.

US contractor Brett found playful pup Carolina wandering the perimeter of Bagram airbase about an hour north of Kabul, but with the strict ‘no feral’ policy enforced at the base; Brett was forced to care for her outside of the base security, clearly not a long term solution.

‘Sharifa’ as she was named, was found by local Afghans at the popular ‘Sakhi Shrine’ in Mazar-e-Sharif in a very bad way. More or less about to give up and die. But thankfully Nowzad is gaining a very good reputation in Afghanistan and a message was passed to us about a dog that desperately needed our help.

Without a moment’s hesitation our amazing Afghan team at the Nowzad clinic jumped into action and arranged to have the poor mite transported to our clinic in Kabul arriving less than 24 hours later.

Along with all the cats we are helping to rehome that are former residents at the US and UK embassies and for cats now adopted by soldiers serving at the coalition headquarters in Kabul we have also supported the adoption of some of our feline friends that found their way to Nowzad but never had a home to go to.

Little Ash was found miraculously surviving fairly well on the harsh streets of Kabul. I say miraculously, because Ash had been born without eyes. Just empty sockets stared back at the kind expat who stooped to pick up the curious young grey and white cat sat unwisely on the side of the busy road.

We received a call from a concerned American at the US embassy; ‘We usually have lots of cats and dogs roaming around the Embassy and we become friendly with those that allow us to approach them, I noticed Ghost a few months back, she would come around and play with an adult yellow lab as a small pup, and gradually started approaching the Security teams.

We were on a night operation with our partner force in a small Taliban village in Kandahar. We entered a compound and heard this loud bark. Assuming there would be a large dog inside, we found the room the bark was coming from with much caution. Only to find the sweetest puppy you've ever seen. He was chained up in the tiny dirty room.

This is the message we received from the caring American who started to look out for this lonely pup; 

I am currently an English Teacher in Afghanistan, teaching Afghan soldiers. A challenging job to say the least, but one, I feel I am making a difference, despite the location and history.

I have stumbled upon a female puppy, all alone, which at first I thought, she will never make it.

From her rescuer;

Stella is a great cat. She was hanging out in her favorite sun spot when we first met. I noticed she had little spot of fur missing on her hind leg and what looked like a small cut. It was nothing serious but I could instantly tell she was a scrapper. A lot of the cats in the area have their special posts when its chow time. They know where to sit to get food from people and they can be protective of those spots. Stella was not very big so she looked to have taken a bit of a beating.

Hello, my name is Echo. I’m The Bacon Cat! I was born in a far-away land called Afghanistan, but it was really dusty there and I didn’t like it much. I decided I needed more friends because I was hungry and friends always give you food.