Iraq war strays find peace in New Jersey

The unluckiest dog in the world was born in Iraq a few years ago, most likely abandoned by its mother and left to fend for itself in the middle of a war zone.

The puppy didn't do so well. During an insurgent attack in the Diyala River Valley in November 2007, it became entangled in razor wire and spent hours yelping in pain amid gunfire and mortar rounds.

Just as its short life was about to end, the puppy hit a lucky streak, melting the war-torn hearts of U.S. soldiers and scoring a crate on a flight out of Iraq.

On a recent blustery winter day, the mixed-breed dog known as K-POT was pacing around a former pizza parlor turned dog-training facility in Gloucester City, nervously eyeing up strangers until he relaxed a bit and started wagging his big, bushy tail.

"Oooh, sorry about that," said trainer Danielle Berger, as K-POT raised his hind leg and watered a plant.

K-POT, named after the Kevlar Protection helmet in which he was found sleeping one day after his rescue, was one of the first batches of animals rescued out of Iraq as part of Operation Baghdad Pups.

The operation is an SPCA International initiative to retrieve dogs and cats befriended by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and treat and train them back in the states until the soldiers come home.

Berger, of Sewell, Gloucester County, became involved in K-POT's life when she started receiving new, upbeat e-mails from her brother, U.S. Army Cpl. Matt McDougall, who was serving as a medic at an outpost near the Diyala River Valley. It was McDougall who found K-POT during that attack and freed him from the razor wire.

"He just said he saw this little ball of fur, all cut up and crying," said Berger, a married mother of two young boys.

A few days later, the unit found K-POT sleeping inside a soldier's helmet and decided to keep him as an official "Force Protection K-9." The truth, Berger said, is that everyone in the unit fell in love with the little mutt and wanted to protect him.

"Most of the e-mails I had gotten from my brother weren't warm and happy. They were losing troops at an alarming rate," she said. "Then all of a sudden, it was as if he came back to life. He was always talking about the dog."

When McDougall's unit was ordered to move, they were told to leave K-POT and another rescued dog behind. The SPCA was contacted and a unit was mobilized to head over to the Middle East and rescue the dogs and cats adopted in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Berger was on that first Operation Baghdad Pups mission with the SPCA International and returned in February 2008 with K-POT. She now has another dog from Iraq, a dark-haired mutt named RG, who had been living with a contractor who couldn't keep him.

"My brother didn't really ask me to help him at first. He would just say 'You've got to see this little dog, he's so cute and so expressive,' " she said. "I thought, there's only so much a civilian can do to help out the cause. If I can help any soldier in any way, I'll do it."

Berger became so enamored with K-POT and the cause she decided to make a new career out of it. A former veterinary technician, Berger's now in school to become a dog trainer and says her new-found skills have helped her turn K-POT into a household pet.

"I have cats, a lizard, a duck and two small boys," she said, petting both RG and K-POT. "These guys are pretty tight with the duck."

While K-POT will step reluctantly toward strangers, sniffing their hands and legs, RG, whom Berger got from Iraq in September, seems terrified by unfamiliar faces. That's a smart tactic for a dog raised in Iraq, said Dawn Watson, a dog trainer who owns Brother of the Wolf dog-training facility in Gloucester City and has been working with Berger.

"Most of these dogs were born in war zones. They've never seen leaves falling or snow or people they can trust," she said. "Sometimes people of a different culture look at animals as something altogether different then what we think of them. These dogs were not pets."

Since that first trip in 2008, Operation Baghdad Pups has been back to the Middle East more than 40 times, rescuing hundreds of dogs and cats that will become pets in the United States. Berger left for her second mission earlier this week.

She says she won't - or at least is trying not to - bring any more dogs back into her house. It's hard enough, she said, thinking about letting go of K-POT, the little ball of fur that became entangled in her family's hearts.

"I try not to think about it," she said as the dog stared intently at her. "I know in my heart and soul that he's my brother's dog. But I'll always love him too."

According to the SPCA International, it costs approximately $4,000 for each animal to be rescued from the Middle East. For more information or to donate to the cause, visit www.spcai. org/

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