Imagine a soldier, far from home, lonely in a very foreign place. This soldier seeks normalcy, comfort even. One day he is walking with his squadron and they witness a dog fight. They break it up, and one of the dogs follows the soldier back to the base. They quickly become fast companions, completing each other. This is the story of Sergeant Pen Farthing. He fell in love with the dog that followed him back to the base, and named him Nowzad after the town he was fighting in. Farthing went through a strenuous process to get Nowzad back to England, and realized that he wanted to help other soldiers do the same.
Since the 2007 founding of Nowzad Dogs, Farthing has helped hundreds of soldiers reunite with stray dogs and cats they cared for in Afghanistan. His organization also opened up the first and only official animal shelter in Afghanistan that is now run by fourteen Afghanis, including four veterinarians. The shelter spays, neuters, and vaccinates stray animals and places rescued animals in caring homes in Afghanistan.
The feeling soldiers received when their Afghani animal friends would greet them upon returning to the base was deeply joyful and much needed. The bonds formed between the soldiers and the animals is symbiotic and therapeutic. They fill voids in both the life of the soldier and the life of the animal. The soldiers do not want to just abandon the animals they came to love, so Nowzad Dogs creates an opportunity for the friendship to carry on indefinitely. Caba met his Afghani dog, Cadence, at the airport in New York after she was shipped over by Nowzad Dogs. Caba said, “”When I pulled Cadence out of the crate at (the airport), I was just so excited. I was even more excited that she remembered me…It kind of brought me back to coming back after a mission and having her there. It brought me right back to that feeling.”
Source: CNN <http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/14/world/asia/cnnheroes-farthing/index.html>
Image source: www.mirror.co.uk
Pen Farthing is the recipient of the 2015 CNN Hero Award for his work to improve not just the lives of soldiers by reuniting them with their animal loved ones, but also the quality of life for Afghanistan’s stray animals.
For more information about his award, follow this link: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/18/world/2014-cnn-hero-of-the-year-pen-farthing/index.html
That’s such a nice story! I really like the concept of your blog because I feel like reading it will always just make me a little happier. When I see stories like these, it’s always pretty inspiring to know that there are people like that out there who are working to give others the same happiness that they themselves once experienced. It would be easy for anyone to go through the struggle of getting their dog home, sit back, say “Man, that was annoying”, then forget about it. To go the extra step and pay it forward, enabling other soldiers to reunite with their friends, is an amazing idea that shows a very considerate heart. Thanks for sharing this story!