02-10-2008, 10:28 PM
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Machiavelli Incarnate
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Washington state
Posts: 3,880
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War dogs get new home
This is actually a good story. As two dogs that a now dead soldier cared for in Iraq are brought to a new home with his family in America.
Quote:
War dogs land at new home
Family of deceased soldier welcomes two rescued pets
Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News
GROSSE POINTE FARMS -- An emotional scene welcomed Mama and Boris to their new snowy environment Friday, as family members met the dogs that meant so much to a soldier whom they hoped to welcome home instead.
The Labrador mixes were retrieved from the streets of Bagdad where Sgt. Peter Neesley had found them and cared for them. Neesley, 28, vowed to bring them home to Grosse Pointe Farms. Despite his Christmas Day death, his wish was fulfilled through the efforts of his family and an international network of people who responded to their cause.
"It's important for them to be here because I don't get to see Peter any more," said Patrick Neesley, 10, whose uncle visited his class at Richard Elementary School before leaving for a second tour in Iraq.
Neesley was found dead in his bunk, and an Army investigation continues into the cause. His grieving family focused not on how or why he died, but on bringing his dogs home from the front lines.
Neesley had bent Army rules by keeping Mama and Boris as pets in the war-torn city, but as he helped them, they helped him cope with the horror he faced, his sister Carey Neesley said, as she hugged 4-month-old Boris.
The effort to fulfill his wish was monumental and sometimes clandestine. It took the help of U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, soldiers in Neesley's unit in Iraq and a private airline. The family obtained the help of private security contractors who searched for the dogs in the streets of Baghdad, then hid them until a Utah group that specializes in international animal rescues could bring them home.
"It's amazing this occurred, and it's a wonderful thing for the family," said Julie Dean, Peter Neesley's aunt. "It was a team effort and it got responses from as far as Australia, Afghanistan, Chicago and Utah."
The dogs took a 14-hour plane ride and then a 10-hour car trip from Washington, D.C., to the family home in Grosse Pointe Farms.
"When I heard this story my jaw dropped, and I thought immediately we have to help them," said Rich Crook of Best Friends Animal Society of Utah, who flew to Baghdad to retrieve the dogs and drove them to Michigan.
Peter Neesley's father, Robert Neesley Jr., said he has mixed feelings about the dogs being here.
"Peter was a father figure to Patrick. So for him to have the chance to raise that pup that belonged to Peter, it's important," the elder Neesley said. "And I'm proud of the efforts that brought the dogs here. But, for me, it's another issue. Patrick is so young he doesn't know about the finality of death. For him, Peter can live on in that dog. Me, I'll just miss him."
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War dogs land at new home
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