Nowzad- Helping to Reunite Soldier's & Dogs

I couldn't love this more! In my goal of spreading awareness of charities that do AMAZING WORK for pets and their humans, here is one of my favorites.  Pets provide comfort in all situations and for our soldiers in other countries, pets not only provide comfort, but a sense of home.  We can all help them with continuing that family unit when they return to the United States.

 

Murphy and I are a bonded pair.  I would be devastate to leave Murphy somewhere and not know if I would EVER see him again.  Will you help me reunite these bonded pairs? 

 

 

Nowzad's Mission

"To relieve the suffering of animals, predominantly strays and abandoned dogs in need of care, attention and to maintain rescue facilities for the care and treatment of such animals, especially the animals of Afghanistan.

In January 2011, after many months of hard toil, Nowzad opened the very first and only officially recognized animal shelter in Afghanistan. To date Nowzad has reunited more than 200 soldiers from all over the world with their much loved adopted cats and dogs and we continue to be inundated with rescue requests on a daily basis.

As well as rescuing soldiers pets we also assist the local people by way of providing vaccinations for their cats and dogs and education on how to care for their pets. We meet a lot of Afghans each week who care deeply for their pets and are thrilled to bits that there is finally a place they can take their pets to show them off and have them vaccinated against disease and neutered."

Poppy's Story
Nowzad

"Spina [Pashto for 'white'] and Poppy turned up in the summer of 2012 on a gravel helicopter pad at a military base in southeastern Afghanistan, in Paktia province near the Pakistani border. When the puppies joined a small pack of dogs that already inhabited the LZ, they appeared to have been only recently weaned, and out on their own for the first time.

Spina came first, in early July. She was first spotted hiding under a parked military truck. She was very timid at first, and it soon became obvious that she was suffering from a bad case of conjunctivitis - there was so much pus draining from both eyes that she could barely see, and consequently she hesitated to leave the shelter of the truck. A few doses of antibiotic eyedrops kept on hand by an experienced contractor swiftly cured her. Within days she was gamboling about the helipad, teasing the older dogs and scrounging table scraps from the Gurkha security guards at the adjacent contractor facility. When she sliced open her left foreleg on some of the ubiquitous razor wire around the base perimeter, the medic sewed up the wound.

Poppy joined the pack in mid-August, just about the time that its patriarch died. 'Bohtey' [Nepalese for 'big guy' was a fierce-looking but friendly old dog to whom Poppy bore a striking resemblance. Poppy appeared to be a few weeks younger than Spina, but grew rapidly and soon overtook the white puppy in size. The two became fast friends and playmates, chasing each other and their elders across the LZ, lounging around the compound's heavy steel gate and occasionally trying, without success, to sneak inside in pursuit of their favorite humans. The contractors' security team was as happy to see Poppy as they were saddened by the loss of her presumed father. The base security chief described the helipad dog pack as 'a great early warning system.'

With their NATO-backed project drawing down, the contractor facility is set to close in a few months. Moreover both pups were close to sexual maturity, raising the prospect they would breed even more pups to be abandoned in Afghanistan ... always a cruel fate. So one autumn day, a contractor scooped them up -- not without some reluctant squirming and two chewed-through leashes -- and sent them on the 3 hour road trip to the Nowzad shelter.

Poppy wants to stay with Spina and go home to America. Their contractor is going to fund the cost of getting Spina home from his own pocket but in order to be able to keep these gorgeous girls together we need your help to fund Poppy. Please spread the word about these girls and consider a small donation to help them on their way home!"

http://www.nowzad.com/