“I noticed she had a puncture wound on her head,” said Kingsley, 29, who then picked up the dog. “When I picked her up and held her, I could see she wasn’t okay.”
Kingsley said he snuggled the little black puppy and gave him some of his chicken lunch, then tracked down the only veterinarian in the area.
“I knew she didn’t belong to anyone because an animal shelter had closed the road and they released all their dogs into the streets,” he said.
Many pups ended up at the base, attracted by the aroma of the food.
The vet told Kingsley the puppy had a serious infection, but it was treatable. After a course of antibiotics, the dog, which Kingsley named Puma, hung around the base and followed him everywhere.
“She was really small and only about 6 months old,” he said. “I didn’t want her to go back to the streets, and there were already a lot of stray dogs running around the base.”
Kingsley loved the dog so much that he told his mother and sister in the United States that he wished he could bring Puma home when his service year ended in March. He said they did some research and learned that the Paws of War organization might be able to help.
The Long Island nonprofit is one of a handful of agencies across the United States that help reunite service members with stray dogs and cats they bonded with while deployed to the stranger.
Kingsley said a volunteer near the military base offered to take in Puma for the remainder of his service in Kosovo because dogs were not allowed in the barracks. Paws of War then paid for the puppy to be flown to Kingsley in the United States after receiving all his vaccinations.
“It meant everything to me,” Kingsley said. “I didn’t want to let her get thrown somewhere and end up dying.”
Paws of War is now working to recover 18 more dogs and three cats from Kosovo before the soldiers who treated them returned home. The organization recently reunited National Guard members in Indiana with dogs they had connections to in Kenya, according to local newspaper The Republic.
“It’s a big mission: All animals have to go through quarantine, get vaccinated and get permission to leave the country,” said Robert Misseri, co-founder and president of Paws of War. “But we are determined to bring them all home.”
“It’s a complicated process because when you’re in the army, you can only leave with what you brought and what you were sent from home,” he explains.
Because stray pets are not military service animals, it is against Department of Defense policy for soldiers to keep pets, adopt them overseas, or transport them on military aircraft , Misseri said.
But stray dogs and cats often end up on overseas bases, and the military feeds and bonds with them, he said. The animals then return to base several times for food and comfort.
“Soldiers become attached to the animals and discover that they offer them companionship in a remote area, far from home,” Misseri said.
For some soldiers, he said, a stray animal can become their best friend.
“When soldiers fall in love with a stray dog or cat and cannot take the animal home, they must say goodbye,” he added. “It leaves a huge hole in their hearts.”
“Bringing a dog home is harder than you think,” Kingsley said. “In the military, it’s not like you can just go online and fill out an application and then send the dog home. There is a ton of administrative work, not to mention the cost. It can be overwhelming.
Since 2014, Paws of War has used donations to reunite about 600 pets with soldiers, at a cost of between $7,500 and $10,000 per animal, Misseri said. The association also rescues shelter dogs in the United States and trains them to become companions of veterans.
The cost of transporting pets from remote areas overseas is high, he said, and every animal needs a veterinarian visit and vaccinations. Once the animals are in the United States, Paws of War pays to quarantine them for 28 days to ensure they have no medical problems.
In about 80 percent of cases, Paws of War arranges for animals to be transported by commercial aircraft to other family members or foster homes before a soldier’s service ends, Misseri said.
When that’s not possible – if a soldier is quickly deployed to another country, for example – Paws of War will send volunteers to find the pets, care for them, and attempt to reunite them with the soldier.
“I don’t want to get hurt, but we always find them,” Misseri said. “We make sure we don’t leave without that cat or dog.”
Earlier this year, Paws of War sent volunteers to a remote military base in Kenya to find five dogs left behind and send them to the soldiers who had been caring for them, he said.
“We deployed locals in fishing boats and used handcarts and small donkeys to bring out the animals,” he said. “The people who had been left behind in this difficult region desperately needed our help. These dogs provided comfort and a sense of normalcy during a difficult time.
That’s how Daniel Rueda bonded with a stray cat named Jack while he was stationed in Kosovo with an Army Rangers National Guard unit.
“I met Jack when he arrived at the base one day while I was having lunch,” Rueda, 33, said. “We weren’t allowed to keep animals on base, but stray animals came and went at the front gate.”
Jack strutted around the barracks like he owned the place, and everyone loved him, including the staff sergeant, he said.
“Jack would come and hang out with me while I was stuck on base for three months with an injury,” Rueda said. “He helped keep me from getting bored and it was fun to play with him and feed him grilled chicken.”
Rueda said he formed an immediate bond with the frisky black cat.
“Every time he showed up, I was happy to see him,” he said. “It got to the point where people were saying, ‘Your cat is looking for you.’ He’s in the hallway.
Jack was flown to the United States by Paws of War and quarantined, then a volunteer picked up the cat on April 20 and drove him to Rueda, Rhode Island.
“I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving him there and not knowing what happened to him,” he said, noting that pets help service members mentally and physically.
“Now Jack is home with me, he’s exploring and he’s happy,” Rueda said. “And he probably gained two pounds from eating chicken.”
