Here's the whole thing. (I could get it with the free subscription)

War-Zone Animals Win Hearts, Minds and Homes
U.S. troops, aid workers and journalists in Iraq and Afghanistan are opening
their wallets and breaking some rules to rescue dogs and cats.
By Julie M. Bowles
Times Staff Writer

September 26, 2004

KABUL, Afghanistan - He was an orphan and an amputee, an Afghan runaway with
a badly infected wound surviving on his wits in the dusty alleys of this
war-shattered capital. She was an independent American woman with a soft
spot for the downtrodden.

She nursed him back to health. Their bond grew. One thing led to another -
shots, paperwork, airplane tickets. Finally, this summer, she brought him to
a place he could have scarcely imagined: a farm in Vermont.

Though his voyage sounds unusual, Mr. Stumpy the three-legged cat is just
one of dozens of homeless animals being rescued by Americans in
strife-ridden countries halfway around the globe. In Afghanistan and Iraq,
U.S. troops, aid workers and journalists are going to great lengths,
spending extraordinary sums - and in some cases even putting their jobs in
jeopardy - to give stray cats and dogs new lives stateside.

"Afghans are often incredulous and sometimes disapproving of all the time
and money I spend on nonworking animals," said Mr. Stumpy's patron, Pamela
Constable, a journalist who forked out more than $700 for the journey and
also shipped a dog, Dosty, home from Afghanistan this year. "My answer is
always that there are hundreds of . charities in Kabul to help people and
especially children, but none for animals."

Whereas Constable braved frowns from some of her Afghan associates to rescue
Mr. Stumpy and Dosty, Maj. Susan Washington risked her good standing in the
Air Force to bring home Annie, a black-and-white mutt she became attached to
while serving in Afghanistan.

Washington sent the dog to New Jersey in March, despite General Order No. 1,
a military regulation that governs all U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and
Saudi Arabia. In addition to barring drinking alcohol, it prohibits giving
"comfort or aid" to domestic animals.

But Annie was too special to ignore, Washington said, and once the two
became companions, impossible to leave behind.

"She's adapted great to life in America and enjoyed the fireworks on the 4th
of July immensely," Washington said of her dog. "She didn't get excited, but
she was obviously watching them. My neighbors chalk it up to her Afghan
upbringing."

Although enforcement of the no-pets part of General Order No. 1 seems to
vary from unit to unit, a number of troops in Iraq have reported that their
dogs and puppies have been confiscated and destroyed in "vector control"
roundups, said Bonnie Buckley of Merrimac, Mass., who runs a group called
Military Mascots.

Buckley's organization helps military personnel with a multitude of pet
issues, including sending care packages to cats and dogs adopted by U.S.
troops in Iraq, raising thousands of dollars to help ship animals to the
States, and finding foster homes for pets whose owners are deployed.

No one keeps close track of the number of animals that have been shipped
back to the U.S. from Iraq and Afghanistan, but Buckley said she knew of
more than 40 soldiers' pets that had found new homes in America. All pets,
including those sent by military personnel, must take commercial flights
because the Pentagon doesn't allow nonofficial animals on its planes.

The process isn't easy. Getting dogs and cats home from Afghanistan and Iraq
is complicated by the lack of veterinary facilities in the two countries,
where keeping dogs and cats as pets is uncommon.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires dogs entering the country to
have rabies vaccinations and certificates. Some animal lovers in Iraq have
taken their pets to Kuwait or Jordan for inoculations before flying them
home, and others have sought out animal doctors at the Baghdad Zoo. A few
Americans in Afghanistan have gotten their pets shots from a center for
mine-detection dogs in Kabul, and many more have crossed into neighboring
Pakistan to visit vets there.

Westerners who go to such lengths to help dogs and cats often face questions
from people who wonder whether caring for animals in places such as
Afghanistan shows a callous indifference to the human suffering at almost
every turn.

But freelance writer Vanni Cappelli, who brought his black-and-white cat,
Queen Soraya, home to the U.S. from Kabul, said pets could alleviate the
depression and despair that might set in when working in war-ravaged
countries. Bonding with an animal, he said, can help reconnect people to
"all the goodness and beauty of the universe."

Laura Salter, U.S. director of the World Society for the Protection of
Animals, which fields many inquiries from soldiers in combat zones, said
many military personnel felt the same way.

"So many of them tell us that tender moments with a scruffy little dog or
cat are exactly what they need to lift their spirits while they are so far
from home and under such great stress," she said. "Knowing that those
animals would be lost without them, the soldiers are going to extraordinary
lengths to save the lives of the dogs and cats who have brought them joy on
their darkest days."

Of course, even pet lovers such as Constable realize that the sums they've
spent can seem exorbitant, and such funds could be used inside Afghanistan
or Iraq to provide food, shelter and care on a greater scale for animals
there. Now she is helping to start a shelter and clinic called Tigger House
in Kabul, although the expense and bureaucracy involved are daunting.

Given the capital's large expatriate community, the demand for such a
facility exists, said veterinarian David Love, an Englishman who came to
Afghanistan to work with farm animals and quickly found himself peppered
with requests from Westerners to treat the ailments of their cats and dogs.

If a full-fledged veterinary facility ever opens in Kabul, Gay LeClerc
Qaderi will probably be among the first clients. Unlike most foreigners who
take pets out of Afghanistan, the management consultant from Reno moved her
11-year-old Siberian husky, Ghork, to Kabul in 2002. She had to appeal to
U.S. military vets at Bagram air base for help when Ghork had a seizure.

Qaderi hopes that if a clinic opens, it will also offer pet supplies. When
she returned to Kabul last spring after a trip abroad, her luggage was
weighed down with a huge bag of Eukanuba Senior dog food.

"Sometimes I ask people to bring in dog biscuits, as a treat, but this was
something I couldn't ask a friend to do," she said with a laugh. "You can
ask for something like mascara, sure, but 40 pounds of dog food? I don't
think so."