Well for those of you that have been following my posts I have some bad news. It does not look like I will be able to bring Abbie home. We have had problems getting other soldiers to step up to helping out with her. Alot of the soldiers here feel that she is an un-necessary responsibliity. Most of them have been pointing the finger saying that (I) being the one that is going to take her home, should have 100% of the responsibilty of taking care of her. I understand what they are saying, if I was not taking her home I would not have as big of (however I still would have some) interest in taking care of her. However many of the other soldiers refuse to do as much as get her cold water during the day if I am not present. I have expressed concern about her health being stuck in a cage all day in the blistering heat. I have asked that we find a way to at least build a pin for her to run in. Find better shade for her. And mostly I have asked for help that while I am gone or on a mission, or pulling additional duty somewhere, or sleeping in after working an all-nighter, that someone help with taking care of her. Sadly there has not been enough help.
If any of the soldiers from my unit see this I just want to say: Thank you to SGT Pollock, SGT Agee, SSG Singhurst, SPC Richard, SPC Pancoast, MAJ Warren, LTC Roche, and anyone else that I forgot to mention for the help that you have been able to give. However after a talk with our Battalion Command Sergeant Major I was told that we will have to get rid of her this week. This is due to the un-healthy lifestyle that she is being forced to live in, and the qualty of care that she is receiving.
We are not sure exactly what will happen to her. I suppose this week we will try to get one of the local nationals to get off off post and try to find her a home with the locals. However from my experience the Iraqi's absolutely hate dogs. If we try to put her out somewhere she will jsut keep returning. She is a very intelligent dog and she knows where the food is. Sadly the probable answer to what will happen is that she will be put down like many of the local dogs becuase of the outstanding number of strays that we have and the rapid spread of rabies in the stray K9's. It is already policy here in Iraq that stray dogs on post will be put down. It is also policy that units may not keep dogs as pets. We were able to cleverly title her as a force protection dog within the unit and with our Battallion commanders signature however she would not be that lucky in any other unit here on post.
Im sorry Abbie, I wish there was more that I can do however I am not in the position to make or really even influence these decisions. I hope sopmething works out between now and then but I will miss you.
To everyone out there sorry for the gloom post but this is a personal blog and I promised to keep everyone in the loop. I will see you all in the next one.
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