Dead Soldiers Family Adopt His Loyal Dog

[lovemymutts]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8383594/dead-soldiers-family-adopts-his-loyal-dog

Click the link for a video.

A British family mourning the death of their son in Afghanistan have adopted a stray dog the young soldier befriended on duty in the months before he died.

Paratrooper Conrad Lewis, 22, wrote to his parents that he planned to bring his canine friend, Peg, back to the UK when he returned from war-torn Afghanistan in April.

But Private Lewis never made it home. He was killed by a Taliban sniper in Helmand Province on February 9.

This week his parents Tony and Sandi wept as they welcomed Peg into their family in Claverdon, Warwickshire, after the dog was released from six months in quarantine, the Daily Mail reports.

Pte Lewis formed a bond with the stray dog in the military compound and wrote in letters to his parents that he had taught it to sit and shared his rations with it.

It is usually military policy to destroy stray animals in the compound, but local commanders made an exception in Peg's case.

"It's understandable, you don't know where these dogs have come from, they're not innoculated, they could disrupt what the guys are going to do," the soldier's dad told the BBC.

"But the local commanders can make a decision, and in this case they did, this dog was far too cute and they looked after it."

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Animal charity Nowzad helped the family rescue the dog, paying about $6000 and enlisting the help of the Afghan army to hide it in a bag and airlift it to a shelter in Kabul.

Vets then cleared the way for the dog to be flown to Britain.

The family has since paid the charity back.

Mr Lewis said the family was delighted to welcome their son's dog into its new home in time for Christmas.

"Conrad's spirit is very much here in Peg. She is the link to everything he did out there," he said.

"We have a large picture of Conrad resting against the wall and Peg walked over to it and seemed to bow her head. It was very touching."

[mita]

A lovely story. I found some beautiful photos on this site. It means so much to the soldier's family (& his girlfriend) to have Peg safe with them in the UK now. They are so thankful to all who helped get her from Afghanistan to them.....& have repaid the expenses of the charity that organised it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2068572/Family-British-soldier-killed-sniper-Afghanistan-bring-home-stray-dog-best-friend.html

I googled NOWZAD, the Afghan-based charity that organised Peg to get to Conrad's family in the UK. They do what they can for the dogs, cats & donkeys of Afghanistan. It mentions how American Airlines are helping them transport a bunch of dogs & a cat to the US for returned American soldiers who'd made them their pets. They help animals in Iraq, too.

http://www.nowzad.com/

Edited December 2, 2011 by mita

[Quickasyoucan]

I read this in the Daily Mail (UK newspaper) a great story and great pics of the dog. May she give the family years of comfort knowing that she was close to their son in his last months.

[SparkyTansy]

*sniff* what a lovely story...

[Trisven13]

I recommend the book Nowzad by "Pen" Farthing who was instrumental in setting up this rescue from the work he did with the compound strays when he was in Afghanistan, it is a very interesting story. He brought two dogs home (I think), one called Nowzad who was NOT a friendly boy to anyone but Pen.

The lads of 5 Troop, Kilo Company, 42 Commando Royal Marines arrived in the war torn town of Now Zad in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan in November 2006. Their mission was to provide stability for the local people during a period of ever decreasing security.

And as one of the Royal Marines – Sergeant “Pen Farthing” was soon to realise, it wasn’t only the local people that needed their help. For some of the many stray dogs of Now Zad they now had a guardian for the first time in their lives.

Pen takes up the story….“When we first arrived in the town of Now Zad I broke up a dog fight that was taking place right outside our remote compound. What I didn’t know was that one of those fighting dogs would then befriend me! I couldn’t say no to those big sad eyes, the now very former fighting dog, became my buddy and found himself a name – Nowzad”.

Soon the first ever dog warden of Now Zad, was looking after two more dogs “RPG” and “Jena”, strays that were very under nourished and didn’t look like they would survive the onslaught of the approaching Afghan winter.

Unbelievably they then gained “Tali” who crept in under the gate carrying 6 little puppies followed by an injured “AK” bringing up the rear. And then to complicate matters “Jena” had 8 puppies as well – life was just a little busy at the best of times in the compound that the Marines called home for nearly three months in the heart of the Taliban tribal belt.

In a quiet corner of the base Pen and two fellow Marines Dave & John built the dogs a modest dog run of sorts and for the dogs added safety they added on a mortar shelter to hide in, which luckily also provided some warmth during the extreme cold of the long winter nights.

The dogs went from scavenging food one day to eating two decent meals a day courtesy of the left over military rations that the Royal Marines didn’t eat!

Pen had already decided that he was going to try and get the dogs to a better life. But being stuck in the small town of Now Zad he had very limited communications with the outside world. With the help of his wife back in the UK they managed to track down an animal rescue centre in the far north of the country.

The only problem was that the Royal Marines had to get the dogs to the safety of the rescue but they couldn’t use military transport as it was against regulations.

As Pen explains “So the difficult task of persuading a local Afghanistan driver to take the dogs all the way to the rescue in the north – a journey of several days – began. Eventually we found a taxi that would take the dogs some of the way to Lashkar Gar and then they would be exchanged with another driver for the journey to Kandahar and then swapped yet again into another vehicle for the drive to the rescue. We had a few issues with this as we knew that the vehicles would be stopped by the Taliban at road blocks and for that reason the driver wouldn’t let us put the dogs in cages, (a very British thing to do – definitely not an Afghan method of transporting dogs), so we had to tie the dogs up with rope and put the puppies into small crates, (Jena’s puppies went into an old bird cage!), not something we were entirely comfortable with – but what else we were to do?

I knew if the vehicle doors were opened without the driver paying attention then there was a chance one or two of the dogs would escape…”

When the vehicle left for the epic journey carrying the dogs of Now Zad that had been, for the last three months, a source of comfort for some of the lads and had given them a sense of achieving something positive, the feeling of whether they had done the right thing was at the front of their minds. Not knowing what would happen to the dogs next was only slightly comforted by the fact that if they had left the dogs in Now Zad death would probably come sooner rather than later from starvation or cold. They might even have succumbed to one of the frequent attacks by the Taliban.

Travelling to the rescue had at least given the dogs a shot at a safe and cared for life. It was something the Royal Marines were willing to risk. Living in Now Zad was no life for the dogs.

Finally via a phone call from back home the lads found out the fate of the dogs; Tali, Jena and Nowzad and 13 of the 14 puppies had made the animal rescue. RPG and AK had escaped when the car door was left open. One of the puppies had been stolen.

The Royal Marines’ celebrations were tainted with sadness. They had no idea where RPG and AK had escaped and there was no way they could go looking for them.

[NOCTRL]

What beautiful touching stories

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

A very moving story and the story behind it is also fascinating, so much sadness in the world but some people are managing to make a difference.

[mita]

I finally got thro' reading 'Our Rescues' on the NOWZAD site. All lovely, but puppy, Winston, has quite a few pics. He's so cute that no one seems to mind him chewing the phone cord or a soldier's kit.

Says he was adopted by the 'Royal Navy'! And given the name Winston after Winston Churchill because he's such a brave little bloke. When funds are raised, Winston will be going to an owner in the UK. An Admiral, perhaps?

http://www.nowzad.com/2009/12/winston/

Edited December 3, 2011 by mita