• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Calif. Woman Rescues Bedraggled Iraq Pups

Posted on: Tuesday, 8 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Four skinny puppies and their sad-eyed mother were delivered from Iraq to a woman who said she felt compelled to push for a rescue after spotting the dogs sitting forlornly in the desert behind a TV news reporter.

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.

"I'm as amazed as you are that this happened," said Christmas, who spotted the dogs April 10 on a television news report. The Camarillo woman, who lives with five adopted Chihuahuas, has been rescuing dogs for decades and does volunteer work for the Doris Day Animal League.

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.

The dogs' odyssey took them on Sunday morning from Amman to Paris, where they were walked, watered and checked by a veterinarian. They were flown from there to Los Angeles International Airport.

Authorities checked their health certificates and they cleared customs Monday.

More News in this Category