Iraqi Puppy Adopted by Soldier en Route to US

[Are_grits_groceries]

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Ratchet the Iraqi puppy finally had his day.

An animal rescue group flew into Baghdad on Sunday and picked up the dog, which was adopted by Army Spc. Gwen Beberg, 28, of Minneapolis in a case that highlighted military rules barring troops from caring for pets while in Iraq.

Ratchet was loaded onto a charter flight, which took off Sunday night for Kuwait. He's due in Minnesota later this week.

It was the third try by Operation Baghdad Pups to get Ratchet out of the country on behalf of Beberg, who says she couldn't have made it through her 13-month deployment without the affectionate mutt.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-ML-Iraqi-Puppy.html

Yea!!!!!

[madmax]

1. Love a good puppy story

:hug: Hooray for Ratchet and Gwen. :patriot:

[LisaL]

2. That's great news.

I was worried something might happen to the dog before he gets a chance to go to US.

[UnjamShredder]

4. Same here...

Thoughts of those YouTube videos were floating through my head immediately. Kudos to a happy ending!

[InvisibleTouch]

5. Me too. I kept ruminating...

...about all the things that could possibly go wrong. I've had dogs disappear just shortly before we had to go to the airport, in the hustle of last-minute packing and taking suitcases out. Fortunately they turned up again a few minutes later, but I would not have been on the plane if the dog hadn't been found first.

The next update I hope to hear from the Ratchet story is his reunion with Gwen in the U.S.

[InvisibleTouch]

3. Excellent! Made my day.

I'll pass along the good news to everyone I e-mailed about this situation, too. Here's wishing Ratchet and Gwen a swift reunion and a long and happy life together!

[beac]

6. Happy news!!

Some people said this was a "silly" cause, but in light of the difficulty Iraq vets are having in obtaining mental health care, I say that bringing the dog that helped her stay sane home to Beberg was a great humanitarian achievement.

[Bigmack]

7. I love puppies....but...

I know a lot of them probably were killed in the bombing/shelling/shooting that we did or started.

Dogs are pretty low on the totem pole in Muslim countries (Mohammed loved pigeons and hated dogs... go figure).

Good for this particular dog, and good for us, too. Now we don't have to think about the dead and maimed women and kids over there.

[shireen]

9. wrong.

We think about the dead Iraqi civilians all the time. And our fallen soldiers. This war has bought so much tragedy. So why not celebrate and feel happy about the few good outcomes in this horrible war?

[Are_grits_groceries]

10. Contrary to Freepers, we can keep 2 thoughts in our minds simultaneously.

Just because we are glad Ratchet has been saved does not mean we don't think about horrific incidents in Iraq.
One does not exclude the other!

[shireen]

8. thanks for posting this story

Those dogs have saved the lives and sanity of our troops in Iraq. They deserve to be with the people they adopted.
:applause:

[rvablue]

11. The dog saved her and now she saves the dog!

Usually happens the other way around with rescue pups!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. Yea! Rachet is on his way to his new home! Wonderful news!

[Joe the Liberal]

13. Great and touching story. n/t