Making a Home for Charlie, Away From Baghdad's Slums

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An Iraqi Dog Has His Day

SPCA International Baghdad Pups program transports a dog named Charlie, of Charlie Company, for a soldier in Iraq who befriended the 9-month-old Border Collie mix.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

After a 30-day quarantine, a cloak-and-dagger turnover was arranged so Charlie would not come to the attention of the soldiers' senior officers. This week, a quartet of U.S. security contractors picked up Charlie at his outpost and took him to Baghdad International Airport. Crisp, meanwhile, flew United Airlines to Kuwait, then Gryphon Airlines to Baghdad. When her plane touched down, the contractors carried Charlie in his crate across the tarmac, and he was soon on his way to the United States.

Once at Dulles, Crisp said, she e-mailed the Charlie Company, "to let the company know that Charlie has put paws on American soil." Soon Charlie was striding with Crisp into the baggage claim area, his still-dingy white tail curved like a plume over the camouflage cape that draped his back.

There to welcome him was former Navy reservist Mark Feffer, accompanied by Cinnamon, a refugee dog Feffer brought home from Afghanistan in 2006. Cinnamon got lost in transit for six weeks, prompting Feffer to launch a rescue mission that his sister, Christine Sullivan, chronicled in a book titled "44 Days Out of Kandahar."

"They give so much support to the guys that are over there," Feffer, who lives in Annapolis, said of war-zone pets.

As the humans spoke, Charlie, perhaps feeling amorous on Valentine's Day, eagerly edged toward Cinnamon. Regal and aloof, Cinnamon leaned toward a row of soft seats, where she later fell asleep.

Charlie, too, quickly sprawled in slumber on the shiny linoleum.

"Jet lag," Crisp pronounced.

Much lay ahead: A dog spa appointment to wash away desert dust. A night at a hotel. In coming days, a vet checkup, a flight to Los Angeles and a drive to Phoenix, where he will be cared for until Watson returns from Iraq.

But first, Charlie was scheduled to stroll around the Mall.

"It's probably going to be a real shock for him to see such beauty and great monuments," Watson wrote in an e-mail to Scroggs yesterday at 2:14 a.m., "after knowing nothing but the slums of Baghdad."