Tuesday, February 19, 2008

He's home!!!

For the news, everyone has been waiting for....

CHARLIE IS HOME IN THE USA!!!! He landed on, of all days, Valentines Day! Arrived in Washington DC at Dullus Airport with Terri from the SPCA and Baghdad Pups program to a warm welcoming from many people and even some reprters and news people were there. Haha, Charlie is a celebrity now! Thats awesome lol.

Well he has been living it up for the past few days. He has been walked around DC and seen some of the greatest monuments our country offers. He has been learning and experiencing so many new things, but like the easy going laid back dog he is, he is taking it all in stride. He has been a real angel and lovable dog from what I've been hearing and he's doing well with other animals, people and kids so that is great news. He has had a Doggie Spa visit and a couple vet checkups and he's extremly healthy and doing well. He should be heading out to Phoenix here shortly so I can't wait, and when we arrive back in the states, Terri is going to get Charlie and head out there so he can be waiting for us when we get off the plane! How exciting!

That's about all for now. Eventually whenever I get to a good internet connection, I want to throw up some pictures of Charlie and all that, but that may have to wait until I get back to the states. For now, check out this article at the Washington Post and they have a couple really good pictures of him.

Washing Post Article

ENJOY!!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

The journey begins!!!

Ok well, I was hoping to update this a little more frequently with the progress of Charlies jouney but the internet has been HORRIBLE so I will do my best from here out.

So here's what has happened since my last post. A group of contracts had stopped by the outpost and picked up Charlie and took them to their compound by BIAP (Baghdad Internation Airport). From there they watched him for the night and the next day until that next evening when his flight was scheduled. Apparently Charlie was crying and not to happy about being taken at the time, but they said at the compound that he seemed real happy and was doing good there. They were also nice enough to give him a bath before his transport to the Airport.

About an hour or so before his flight, Terri Crisp from the www.SPCA.org who has been one of many that have put forth many many hours, days, weeks of helping to get Charlie out of Iraq, flew in to BIAP so that she could escort him on his trip back home. That evening the 2 of them boarded a plane bound for Kuwait City. I was so excited to hear the news when I got the email. Once they landed in Kuwait City Airport, there was a 2 hour wait before they finally boarded a plane bound non-stop 13 hours to Dullas Airport in Washington, DC!! At the time of me writing this, they have been on that flight for about 11 hours so here very soon, Charlie will finally be in the USA! Its awesome to think his little paws will touch American soil for the first time on Valentines Day.

So I am totally overwhealmed with happines that Charlie has finally made it out of here. Had you asked me a month 1/2 ago if I though he was going to make it, I would have said no. I of course was still trying everything I could, but I was beging to lose hope after so many options fell through, including the one with an organization that you think would definatly help by the name, Military Mascots. In fact I am quite upset with the lady of that organization as she totally abondonded me in my help with Charlie.

Fortunatly options opened up and Matt of Blackfive was able to put me in touch with someone that led to a snowball of help that just kept growing and growing in to what has turned out to be a wonderful story. Theres so many people I want to thank that over the past 6 months, have come together and helped in many ways to make this happen. But for the sake of annonimity I will not mention them all at this time, since I have not had their permission. I do want to send out a special thanks to Terri and all the folks of the SPCA Internation for their help and without them I really don't know if this would of been possible. I have been working with Terri for many months now I can't thank her enough for the time and effort she as well as others have put towards helping. They have even begun a new program called Operation Baghdad Pups which is geared specifically towards helping other soldiers in similar situations as mine. They have I believe 11 other soldiers and animals that they are trying to help now, but its looking like Charlie is going to be the first sucess story! So thank you again for all your help, I cant express my gratitude enough.

Well I will go ahead and finish this up now, but I will continue to update this as he completes his journey back home. Im stoked, this is AWESOME!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Looks like he's coming home...

I will definatly update again on this soon as soon as it happens, but as I mentioned in my last post that some pieces had started to fall in to place and lots of them began falling, all in the right places and now, its looking very good that Charlie may begin his journey to the US in just a few days!! I can't believe it, after all these months and so many failed attempts, its finally happening. Again I will keep everyone posted as things happen, but keep your fingers crossed and your prayers coming and hopefully Charlie will be an American soon!