Story:

Life for people and animals in Iraq is dangerously precarious. Unexpected events that can forever alter someone’s existence are an everyday reality. Two soldiers and a dog experienced this when a chain of events was put in motion and their worlds overlapped.

Sergeant Steven Christofferson was killed in Iraq on April 21, 2008. At the time of his death he had two dogs that he was caring for – Sally Bujo and Little Beast. Losing their friend, threatened the lives of both dogs too. Befriending an animal while on active duty is a violation of regulations and whether someone else in Steven’s unit would be willing to take the risk was not immediately known.

In July 2008, SPCA International received an email from Steven’s mother inquiring about the dogs that her son had loved. No one seemed to know what had happened to them and Michell felt she had to try and locate them because that is what her son would have wanted her to do. Efforts were made to track down Sally Bujo and Little Beast but their whereabouts were unknown. Sadly, these two dogs were probably victims of the rules and had been returned to the mean streets of Iraq. Emailing the family to let them know was difficult. It was like another part of who their son was had been taken from them.

There are things in each person’s life that linger no matter how hard you try to forget. Apparently, Michell Christofferson just could not forget Sally Bujo and Little Beast. On January 11, 2010, SPCA International received another email from this grieving mom. What she wanted to know was whether there was any chance at all that her son’s dogs had resurfaced. With her request came pictures of the dogs that she had discovered in an old email from Steven. When Operation Baghdad Pups Program Manager, Terri Crisp, saw the pictures she thought she recognized one of the dogs.

After doing some research, comparing where Steven had been stationed in Iraq and where the dog Terri thought resembled Sally Bujo was living, Forward Operating Base Summerall became the common element. Terri immediately sent an email to Sergeant Daniel Funovitz.

Daniel had taken over the care of a dog named Daisy after arriving at FOB Summerall in September 2009. The outgoing unit had been feeding her but no one wanted to bring her home with them. Part of the reason was that Daisy was a Force Protection Canine and technically they are military property that are to be left in Iraq and passed along to new units. These are dogs that were born on the streets of Iraq that have been befriended by the troops. The dogs are given this classification to protect them and in return their job is to bark and alert when animals and people come onto military installations that are not supposed to be there.

What attracted Daniel to Daisy was her barking. It was rare to see the dog during the day but she made her presence known at night by barking at stray dogs, vehicles, people she thought did not belong on the FOB, wildlife and sometimes nothing at all. After a while the incoming unit began to complain and there was talk of shooting the annoying dog. Daniel just could not let this happen. So, her ventured out one night and found Daisy perched on a burm where she had an excellent vantage point of her surroundings. She barked as Daniel approached but it did not take long to win over her trust. It turned out that Daisy was a great dog, but she seemed lonely. After that night Daniel started bringing Daisy into his room to sleep. Much to everyone’s delight they began to sleep better at night.

When rumors began to spread that the FOB would be closing, there also came the alarming news that eventually all the dogs living on or near the base would be killed. That was when Daniel began to look for away to get Daisy out of Iraq. Operation Baghdad Pups received his request for help in November 2008.

On January 11, 2010, Daisy arrived in the U.S. There were two families overjoyed with her arrival – Daniel’s family and the family of Sergeant Christofferson. It turned out that Daisy and Sally Bujo was the same dog. Michell Christofferson said in an email, “I want to thank you so much for helping me find Sally Bujo! I haven't seen Steven’s brothers smile like that in a long time when I told them the news!”

After Daisy arrived home I got an email from Daniel and in it he said, “Now that I know about Steven, I believe that Daisy came back at night and stayed on the burm because it was right next to where Steven stayed. I think she was waiting for him to come back.”