Update:

Iraqi is living with Alishia's parents and sisters on a farm near Felton, PA.

Story:

While waiting in a long line to pick up aircraft parts, Alishia Lleitheiser, an Army Specialist, befriended a puppy she spotted playing along the side of the road. For hours, while she would wait her turn to pick up the supplies her crew needed, she would play with the happy joyful puppy. Normally a dangerous and monotonous task, Alishia looked forward every return and started signing up for every trip that came available. She called the puppy Iraqi. Alishia went to the aircraft parts depot almost every week until, suddenly, no more trips came up for months. “That was a very hard time for me,” Alishia explained. When the next trip finally came up, Alishia was worried that Iraqi may not be there anymore or if he was he would not recognize her. She could not have been more wrong - “By the time I got my truck turned around and staged, he was there waiting for me. I barely was out of my truck when just jumped on me and loaded me with kisses. When I let him down, he started doing to pouncing back and forth thing that dogs do when they are excited. I couldn’t stop laughing,” Alishia said. “I knew right then and there that I wanted to do whatever I could to get this little guy out of this horrible environment.”

She started to research and that is when she found SPCA International’s Operation Baghdad Pups program. Alishia also went online and purchased the items she would need to care for Iraqi. Then she went back to the aircraft parts location the next chance she had and brought Iraqi back to camp.

Alishia told SPCA International that when she was with Iraqi, “it seemed like nothing else in the world mattered.” When Alishia spent time with Iraqi, it made her feel like she was back home. “While being over here, stress is dumped on each soldier every day, but when there is a piece of home somewhere nearby, it makes everyday better. Iraqi has been that piece of home for me.”

“I would of never been able to do this without the help of SPCA International,” said Alishia. “You give so much to help animals and soldiers. There is not a thanks in the world that is big enough.”