Ratchet Goes To Washington, In U.S. At Last
Posted on Monday, 20 of October , 2008 at 8:38 pm
WASHINGTON, DC—Ratchet, the Iraqi dog now known worldwide, arrived at the Dulles International Airport on Monday, finally in the United States.
The black dog with the white chest blaze sported a red, white and blue bandanna on his ride from Amsterdam to the U.S.
The rescue group, Baghdad Pups which is affiliated with SPCA International, was finally successful on its third attempt to rescue Ratchet, the black and white puppy who has been adopted by Army Spc. Gwen Beberg of Minneapolis, Minn.
Terri Crisp, program director for Baghdad Pups flew into Baghdad on Sunday and picked up the dog which had finally received clearance from the military to leave Iraq.
Beberg is scheduled to finish her tour in Iraq next month and return to the U.S. and has been trying to get Ratchet out of Iraq to her home in Minneapolis where her parents will care for the dog until she returns home.
A private security firm picked up Ratchet from the military base where he has been and delivered him to the airport where he was met by Crisp who took custody of the black and white pup. They left Baghdad on a charter flight for Kuwait. From Kuwait, they flew to Amsterdam and then to Washington on a flight donated by Northwest Airlines.
Ratchet was given a clean bill of health by a vet Monday and received his shots. He will spend two nights in a kennel in Washington and is expected to be in Minneapolis on Wednesday, delivered to the waiting arms and love of Beberg’s parents. Beberg says she couldn’t have made it through her 13-month deployment without the dog she and another solider rescued from a burning pile of trash in May when Ratchet was only four weeks old.
Crisp had hoped to get Ratchet on a rescue mission last Wednesday when she rescued six other dogs that have been adopted by soldiers and delivered them to their destinations in the U.S.
Just 30 minutes before Crisp was to lift off from the Baghdad International Airport Wednesday, the Army finally gave Ratchet clearance to be released from his located at COP Meade but there wasn’t enough time for Crisp to get him from the military base where he was being held.
The Army had seized Ratchet on Oct. 1 from a military convoy which had been on its way to the airport to send Ratchet to the U.S. Until last week, Beberg didn’t know if her dog was alive or where it was.
Nearly 70,000 people signed an online petition urging the Army to allow the puppy to come to the U.S. The case has highlighted military rules which bar troops from caring for pets while in Iraq.
I just want my puppy home,” Beberg wrote to her mother in an email from Iraq soon after she was separated from the dog after a transfer to another base. It has been an emotional time for her, being separated from the dog in the manner the military chose and not knowing it’s fate, fearing that the dog will be killed.
Defense Department rules prohibit soldiers in the U.S. Central Command, which includes Iraq, from adopting pets. Exceptions have been made with Operation Baghdad Pups which has transferred 50 dogs and six cats to the US in the last eight months.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OPERATION BAGHDAD PUPS
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2008/10/15/not_in_time/ 10/20/08
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Category: Animals, Good News, Government, Military
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