Georgia Soldier Needs Help Getting War-Plagued Puppies Home

AFGHANISTAN — A Dallas soldier, deployed to Afghanistan, and his five buddies need help to get their puppies home.

John Brown grew up in the south Paulding area and even attended PB Ritch Elementary, back when it was around. He attended Dobbins Middle School and graduated in 2008 from South Paulding High.

Today, Brown is a sergeant with the Georgia Army Guard, 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, deployed to Afghanistan. He’s been on active duty with the unit for the last two years and was in a reserve status with the unit for the six years prior, while he worked for Marietta Police, from 2012-2016.

“We found the six puppies after having to run off some locals that were being kinda shady near our perimeter,” Brown explained. “Turns out they had been abusing the mother of these puppies to the point that she wasn’t going to make it. We happened to find the puppies hiding in the perimeter wall. They were clearly new born and in rough shape.

“Once they were within the walls we did as much as we could to get them healthy and clean,” he said. “They eventually trusted us enough to eat and let us touch them without panicking. We ended up raising them to the point that they learned to walk and run, play fetch, and became genuinely excited to see us.”

The puppies quickly became family to the soldiers and contractors. They took turns making sure the puppies had food, water, baths and comfort in an area plagued by war.

Over time, it became apparent that the soldiers were not going to be able to support six puppies on the base because they didn’t have access to dog food or clean water for them, other than bottled water. Brown ended up finding a charity, called Nowzad, in Kabul.

The organization agreed to help get the puppies the medical care they still needed and to help the soldiers get them home.

“The day we arranged for a Nowzad representative to come get them, our area was plagued with IED detonations,” Brown said. “Thankfully the puppies and everyone involved in the transfer were unharmed but it was quite an ordeal.”

One of the contractors Brown works with has agreed to care of two of the puppies.

“Myself and three of my guys have the other four to take care of,” he said. “The contractor, Rusty, is the president of a Veteran’s charity ‘VetCatch.’ He is working diligently to help us raise the funds because we can’t really do too much ourselves. The current cost is $3,000 a puppy, or $18,000. Rusty has volunteered to fly back with the puppies to reduce the cost for us as well. Unfortunately, the cost of the plane ride and the U.S. Customs work is nearly $2,300 a dog as it stands now.”

Nowzad has experience with handling animals like this, and they are handling all of it. The soldiers just have to find a way to raise the money. They have set up a fundraising page that goes directly to the puppies for simplicity.

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Brown’s pup’s name is Arty, like artillery, because he’s a Joint Fires Observer.

So, he says,”My life is Artillery and Air.”

Sgt. Lively has “Fenty;” Sgt. Taylor has “Kabul;” Spec. Purvis has “Khandy;” and Rusty has “Jaf” and “Lucy.”