Hi Everyone,
Here is a follow up about Nubs... Great Story.

Was watching Ellen the other day and she highlighted this story too.

Dan

Marine reunited with dog he rescued
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 03/23/2008 01:33:57 AM PDT


SAN DIEGO (AP) - A San Diego-based Marine major was reunited Saturday
with one of his closest war buddies - a 2-year-old dog named Nubs.

Nubs greeted Maj. Brian Dennis at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station
when the fighter pilot returned from Iraq.

It was the first time the two were together since Dennis' family and
close friends helped raise $3,500 to fly the dog to San Diego about a
month ago. Nubs wasn't allowed to stay on base in Iraq.

Dennis, 36, of St. Pete Beach, Fla., had spotted the mongrel dog
while on patrol in Anbar province and later nursed the animal back to
health after finding him stabbed with a screwdriver.

He named the dog Nubs after learning someone cut the ears off
believing it would make the dog more aggressive and alert



--- In pounds4pounds@yahoogroups.com, "Dan Duncan" <cigardan1@...>
wrote:
>
> Nubs the Iraqi dog finds something to bark about after rescue by
> Marine
> By Chelsea J. Carter
> Associated Press
> Article Launched: 02/22/2008 07:57:15 AM PST
>
>
> SAN DIEGO - It began with a simple act of kindness to save an
abused
> and injured dog from becoming one more victim in the war in Iraq.
> But what followed for Marine Maj. Brian Dennis and the mutt was a
> tale of friendship and loyalty that spanned miles, borders, and
> overcame long odds - a tale that takes a turn Friday with the
> anticipated arrival here of the Marine's best friend.
>
> "This dog who had been through a lifetime of fighting, war,
> abuse ... is going to live the good life," Dennis told his family
in
> an e-mail from Iraq.
>
> The tale of friendship unfolded in October, a few months after
> Dennis deployed to Iraq from San Diego to work as part of the
> military team building infrastructure along the Syria-Iraq border
> and training Iraqi forces to take over.
>
> Dennis, 36, of St. Pete Beach, Fla., had volunteered for the
> assignment. It was a departure from his role as a fighter pilot. He
> had seen the country from the air. But on the ground, it was
> different.
>
> Dennis wrote stories home about the reciprocal relationship that
> desert dogs, strays wandering outside border towns, had with Iraqis.
>
> "The dogs get to eat the Iraqi scraps and have a home in the middle
> of the desert," he wrote in an e-mail. "The Iraqis get an
incredible
> early warning system; these dogs hear anything approaching from
> miles away and go nuts and scramble to defend their territory."
>
> While on patrol in the Anbar province, Dennis spotted what appeared
> to be a gray and white, male German shepherd-border collie mix. He
> named the dog Nubs after learning someone cut the ears off
believing
> it would make the dog more aggressive and alert.
> Within weeks, Nubs was greeting Dennis during routine patrol stops
> along border communities. The Marines fed him bits of their food
and
> by November, the Marine and his unit were keeping an eye out for
the
> dog, who routinely chased their Humvees when they departed.
>
> Life on the run, however, was taking a toll on the dog. He had lost
> a tooth and been bitten in the neck. In late December, Dennis found
> Nubs near death in freezing temperatures. The dog had been stabbed
> with a screwdriver.
>
> Dennis rubbed antibiotic creme on the wound and slept with Nubs to
> keep him warm.
>
> "I really expected when I woke up for watch he would be dead,"
> Dennis wrote. "Somehow he made it through the night."
>
> Dennis thought he had seen the last of the dog days later when his
> squad headed back to their command post some 65 miles away. He
> couldn't take the dog with him and watched as it tried to follow
the
> Humvees away from the border.
>
> Two days later, while Dennis and a comrade were working on a
Humvee,
> he looked up and saw the dog staring at him.
>
> "Somehow that crazy damned dog tracked us," he wrote Jan. 9.
>
> But the reunion was short lived. Military policy prohibits having
> pets in war zones, and Dennis was given four days to get the dog
off
> the base or kill him.
>
> The decision was easy: Nubs was going to San Diego. The logistics,
> though, were anything but easy.
>
> With help from his Iraqi interpreter, Dennis managed to find a
> Jordanian veterinarian to get the care and paperwork needed to get
> it to the states. He also negotiated the red tape to get the dog
> across the border into Jordan.
>
> His family and close friends helped raise the $3,500 needed to get
> the dog from Amman, Jordan, to San Diego, said his mother, Marsha
> Cargo.
>
> "I just can't believe it. Out there in the middle of nowhere these
> two find each other," Cargo said.
>
> A colleague in San Diego agreed to care for the dog and have it
> trained until Dennis returns in March from Iraq.
>
> "We anticipate a real steep learning curve for Nubs," said Capt.
> Eric Sjoberg. "We want him to learn to just be a dog."
>
> For now, though, Dennis will settle for the knowledge that Nubs is
> finally safe - and waiting for his master to follow him.
>
> AP-WS-02-22-08 0523EST
>