When you are kind with someone, that someone whether it be a person or
an animal , will never forget you. When Maj. Brian Dennis of the United
States Marine Corps met a wild stray dog with shorn (sheared) ears
while serving in Iraq, he had no idea of the bond they would form,
leading to seismic changes in both their lives. Let's enjoy and learn
from the following story derived from the article written by Helena
Sung, featured in Aol.com.
In October 2007, Dennis and his team of 11 men were in Iraq patrolling
the Syrian border when one day, encountered a pack of stray dogs, not
uncommon in the barren, rocky desert that was home to wolves and wild
dogs.
"We all got out of the Humvee and I started working when this dog came
running up," recalls Dennis." I said, 'Hey buddy' and bent down to pet
him." Dennis noticed the dog's ears had been cut. "I said, 'You got
little nubs (something small) for ears.' The name stuck. The dog whose
ears had been shorn off as a puppy by an Iraqi soldier (to make the dog
"look tougher"), became known as Nubs.”
Dennis fed Nubs with scraps from his field rations, including bits of ham and
frosted strawberry Pop Tarts. "I didn't think he'd eat the Pop Tart, but
he did," says Dennis.
At night, Nubs accompanied the men on night patrols. "I'd get up in the
middle of the night to walk the perimeter with my weapon and Nubs would
get up and walk next to me like he was doing guard duty," says Dennis.
Whenever Dennis left, he could not forget about the dog.
"Every couple of weeks, we'd go back to the border fort and I'd see Nubs
every time," says Dennis. "Each time, he followed us around a little
more." And every time the men rumbled away in their Humvees, Nubs
would run after them. Eventually, he'd wear out, fall behind and
disappear in the dust."
On one trip to the border fort in December 2007, Dennis found Nubs was
badly wounded in his left side where he'd been stabbed with a
screwdriver. "We pulled out our battle kits and poured antiseptic on his wound and
force fed him some antibiotics wrapped in peanut butter." Dennis and his team left again
the next day, but Dennis thought about Nubs the entire time, hoping the
dog was still alive.
Two
weeks later, when Dennis and his team returned, he found Nubs alive and
well. "I had patched him up and that seemed to be a turning point in how
he viewed me," says Dennis. This time, when Dennis and his team left the
fort, Nubs followed.
Though the dog lost sight of the Humvees, he never
gave up. For two days, Nubs endured freezing temperatures and packs of
wild dogs and wolves, eventually finding his way to Dennis at a camp an
incredible 70 miles south near the Jordanian border.
"There he was, all beaten and chewed up," says Dennis. "I knew
immediately that Nubs had crossed through several dog territories and
fought and ran, and fought and ran," says Dennis. The dog jumped on
Dennis, licking his face.
Most of the 80 men at the camp welcomed Nubs, even building him a
doghouse. But a couple of soldiers complained, leading Dennis' superiors
to order him to get rid of the dog. With his hand forced, Dennis decided
that the only thing to do was bring Nubs to America. He began
coordinating Nubs' rescue effort. Friends and family in the States
helped, raising the $5,000 it would cost to transport Nubs overseas.
Finally, it was all arranged. Nubs was handed over to volunteers in
Jordan, who looked after the dog and sent him onto to Chicago, then San
Diego, where Dennis' friends waited to pick him up.
A month later, Dennis finished his deployment in Iraq and returned home
to San Diego, where he immediately boarded a bus to Camp Pendleton to be
reunited with Nubs. "Nubs went crazy," recalls Dennis.
"He was jumping up on me, licking my head."
Dennis' experience with Nubs led to a children's picture book, called
"Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine & a Miracle,"
published by Little, Brown for Young Readers. They have appeared on the
Today Show and on The Tonight Show with Conan
O'Brien.
Was it destiny that Dennis met Nubs and brought him to America? "I don't
know about that," says Dennis. "It's been a strange phenomenon. It's
been a blessing. I get drawings mailed to me that children have drawn of
Nubs with his ears cut off. It makes me laugh."
Someone
will forget what we said. Someone will forget what we did, but that
someone will never forget how we made him/her feel.
What we have done
for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the
world remains and is immortal.
-Albert Pike
By Tim Pedrosa
Some people (or something) come
into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave
footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.
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