Story:

Maggie was found by a couple soldiers who had been waiting for their major to exit a meeting.  The group spotted Maggie and her littermates struggling to survive between a building and some Hesco barriers, with no mother in sight. The only water to which the puppies had access was filthy and given the constant flow of traffic in front of the building, it was just a matter of time before the puppies would be run over and killed. The soldiers tried to catch the puppies, thinking they might be able to find a better place for them to live.  “We’d seen too many dead puppies since we got to Iraq, so we wanted to at least try and lengthen the lives of this group,” explained one of the rescuers, SSG Jonathan Canipe.  They succeeded only in grabbing Maggie, who was the slowest or maybe the smartest puppy in the group.

When the major came out of the meeting and saw the scared, malnourished, cross-eyed and filthy dirty puppy he said, “I don’t know if we can keep her, but we’ll get her the hell out of here.”

Maggie boosted the morale of everyone with whom she came in contact, and kept the unit soldiers from getting into trouble.  One solider named Joshua explained, “The major, on several occasions, would come out of his office to give us a scolding for something and when Maggie would get in front of him and look up at him with her big brown eyes, he would promptly forget whatever irritated him.”

Several months after Maggie’s arrival, Joahua broke his ankle, limiting what he could do.  Maggie became his constant companion and followed him everywhere on the unit compound.  When the major told the unit that someone had to send Maggie to the states, Joshua was the first to raise his hand.  “She’s the best gift I have ever received,” Joshua said once he knew Maggie was going to be safe and a part of his family.