dogster | Vid We Love: U.S. Marine Brings Home Dog from Afghanistan

From Dogster: http://www.dogster.com/lifestyle/vid-we-love-marine-brings-home-dog-afghanistan

Sgt. Jacob Fisher has been with the Marine Corps for 11 years, and he recently returned from his third tour to the Middle East — a seven-month deployment. But he wasn’t coming home alone.

Jax was on his way as well, a dog who lived on the base and befriended the soldiers. Fisher had saved Jax when he was a puppy, and Fisher wasn’t going to risk having the dog returned to the dangerous streets of Bagram, Afghanistan, after he returned to the U.S.

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As he says in the video created by PAWsitive, he was doing a tower check one day and a dog showed up in one of the wild animal traps on the base. Fisher called him a “small little bitty baby puppy.” How small? Look at this:

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He decided to call the puppy Jax — an excellent name — and proceeded to take care of the little dog. He says in the video that Jax looked “kinda miserable” when they found him, and he was shaking a lot. Almost immediately, Fisher knew he was going to be taking the puppy home with him.

“I knew what is was like out there,” he says. “They would shoot rockets at the base. Every day it was a new experience; the rockets fell everywhere and it was always dangerous.”

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To get Jax home, Fisher worked with SPCA International’s Operation Baghdad Pups: Worldwide. To date, the group has reunited 550 animals with service members who cared for them during their deployments.

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“Going to Afghanistan I didn’t even realize I would see a dog on the base, let alone fall in love with a dog and want to bring him home,” says Fisher.

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“He made me really happy,” Fisher says. “I was kinda down, thinking about my son, missing him so much, and Jax came along, and lifted everyone’s spirits.”

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Eventually, Fisher got his wish. Jax would be going home with him — but it would take time. But last week, two and a half months after Fisher made it back, he finally he welcomed a timid, scared Jax on American soil, where the two old friends took time to bond again.

“I got my buddy back,” says Fisher.

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Watch the whole video by PAWsitive:

“Jax has done so much for me,” Fisher says. “Mentally, physically, in more ways that anyone can imagine.”