BAGHDAD PUPS

One of our staff members, who formerly served in the Navy, brought me an article from a magazine about bringing canine friends home from war zones. It describes how soldiers take care of local homeless dogs, and find that providing for their everyday wants, from food to affection, helps them deal with the terrible stresses experienced while fighting and living in constant danger. A new organization, "Operation Baghdad Pups", run by the SPCA International, helps ship these loving comrades back home. Their website is: http://www.baghdadpups.com/.

You may have seen human interest stories on the evening news about these rescues, often accompanied by tearful reunions in crowded airport settings like LAX or O'Hare. One such tale was made into a book, which we have at the library, "From Baghdad with Love", by Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman. this heartwarming story is filled with photos of the officer and his comrades in full battle dress , the little dog Lava right in the midst of them all. As the author states, he may have rescued the dog physcially from a life of certain starvation or injury, but he was rescued right back from the emotional toll that fighting took on him. It was not an easily-accomplished journey with miles of redtape, but now they both live happily in California, part of a happy. loving family.