Think of the Puppies

Watching the war on TV, I kept wondering what happened to the animals I saw scurrying across the screen. One woman actually did more than wonder:

Marcy Christmas beamed as the 4-month-old puppies tumbled out of Air France cargo carriers into a warehouse hangar. They wrestled with one another and showed no signs of fatigue after surviving war, hunger and a 9,300-mile journey from the Jordan-Iraq border.
...
Christmas, 51, moved by the puppies' plight, first tried to reach the TV news reporter in the area, then discovered an Amman, Jordan-based group called the Humane Center for Animal Welfare. She called the founders and asked if they could rescue the puppies.

"Actually, we were going to Iraq to save gazelles," said Margaret Ledger, director of the center. But Ledger pledged to keep an eye out for the dogs along the way.

In the Iraq village of Al Amanieh, the small convoy including a veterinarian and two U.S. military escorts spotted six puppies and the mother was so weak she could barely stand. One puppy was adopted by an Iraqi family and another by military personnel. Christmas agreed to pay the $1,000 cost of transporting the others to Southern California.

I am glad the dogs are okay--a teeny bit of sunshine in a dark, dark war. I'm one of those people who gets more upset when animals die than when people die in movies, too. Yeah, I'm ashamed to say it but I'm a bit of a sap. All part of my charm.

ntodd  ¶ 8:30 AM