Saving the Dogs of War

March 31, 2005 -- -- Living in a military town, Lynn Bochcia sees firsthand the sacrifices U.S. servicemen and women make for their country. She says she felt compelled to do something to help, but taking up arms wasn't really an option. So she opened her home and her heart to Semper.

Semper, a mixed-breed dog of mainly shepherd ancestry, was losing her home because her owner was being deployed overseas. Bochcia agreed to foster the dog, although she wasn't sure how the two Shetland sheepdogs and two cats she had at home would feel about it.

"They clicked right away," she said. "Every once in awhile we have to have a little standoff. I have to remind her that I'm the alpha and she's the beta, but it doesn't last very long."

Because there's no official program in place to care for pets of the military, some believe that literally thousands of animals have been abandoned or euthanized simply because their owners had no one to care for them when they were deployed.

Now volunteers, grass-roots groups and larger, more organized nonprofits -- motivated by a love for the animals they save and a sense of duty to those in uniform -- are taking matters into their own hands.

Miliary Members Faced With Unacceptable Choice

Bochcia lives in South Carolina's Beaufort County, home of both the Beaufort Naval Hospital and the famed Parris Island Marine training facility. She realized how she could get involved when she heard about the NetPets Web site on one of her favorite Sunday morning radio shows.

NetPets provides tons of free information about pets, vets, animal rights and just about anything pet-related that Steve Albin, who runs the site from his home in Myrtle Beach, S.C., can squeeze in.

Albin decided to branch out shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. Like so many Americans, he had spent that day glued to his television set. For Albin -- who grew up in New York City -- the images of the attacks on the World Trade Center were both shocking and saddening. As the U.S. military began building up to take action against al Qaeda in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, he began to think about what war would mean for pet owners in the service.

"Two days after the 9/11 attacks I got three calls from people who apprised me of what had happened in the [first Gulf War]," he said. "When military pet owners were called to serve and protect and they did not have friends or family to take care of their beloved pets, they were left with three totally unacceptable options: First, dump them into a shelter; two, have the pet rescued and place into an alien home forever; or three, simply abandon them."

The thought that U.S. soldiers might have to euthanize their pets seemed particularly unfair.

"What kind of a morale builder is that? In order to go serve and protect you have to murder your best friend," he said. "Something's wrong with this picture."

Albin decided to use the resources he had amassed through NetPets to give servicemen and women a fourth option -- putting their pet in a loving home where the animal would be cared for until the troops came home again. On Sept. 19, 2001, NetPets' MilitaryPetsFOSTER Project went live, and within a week Albin had his first foster home.

"People were opening their hearts and their doors to help the pets of the military," he said.

Prospective fosterers have to fill out an application on the Web site and go through an extensive background check so that Albin can be sure the animals' temporary homes will be good ones.

In the last 3 ½ years, Albin estimates NetPets has been responsible for placing more than 8,000 dogs, cats, birds, horses and other pets that would have been abandoned, euthanized or possibly worse.

'A Sense of Duty'

Maybe it's the smell coming from her house, or the fact that she's always on the lookout for a stray or abandoned dog. But Terry Wolf says everyone -- from her colleagues at work to the local animal control officers to the dogs themselves -- knows: She's the dog lady.

"Word is out, I suppose," she said.

Wolf and a number of friends in the Savannah, Ga., area started a grass-roots group that helps find homes for stray and abandoned dogs in the area.

Some of the animals have physical problems; others have behavioral problems. "We'll get them vetted, we'll get them rehabilitated," Wolf said. "We find, you know, permanent homes for them."

In January, Wolf received a phone call from the animal control department in Hinesville, Ga., asking for help.

"Because of the deployments that had started and were to be continuing for months, all these animals were coming in," said Wolf, who works in a hospital's public relations department. "They didn't want to euthanize them so they begged us to start to try looking and finding homes."

They were the pets of soldiers. Some had been abandoned by their owners; others were left behind with families who couldn't or wouldn't care for them.

So Wolf and her friends started the Southern Comfort Animal Rescue. Almost immediately, they found themselves deluged with calls about animals in need of help.

"Once people realize you've got a little bit of knowledge and an inside line with some veterinarians, they'll call you at all hours about any animal," she said.

Wolf says that she spends virtually every waking hour she's not at work rescuing animals. She says she could use some sleep, but often sacrifices her slumber as she finds herself racing the clock.

"It's just a sense of duty," Wolf said. "If an animal has three days before Animal Control has to put it down, it's hard for me to go to bed knowing that if I don't get its picture posted, that could be it."

That sense of duty is pushed to its limits when the owner of one of the animals Wolf is caring for is killed in combat -- something that happens far too often.

"If the soldier doesn't return, they're killed, I particularly want to find a good home for their pet," Wolf said.

She says at least the soldier will know that their beloved pet will be cared for. "I figure that's that last thing they'd want."

A Powerful Bond

Bochcia hopes Semper's owner will come home safe and sound, but when that happens, she still hopes to remain a part of the dog's life.

"We've formed a bond and I don't think it's right to let her walk away and never see her again," Bochcia said. "I'm certainly hoping I can stay on the sidelines at least."

Meanwhile, she feels that in taking care of Semper, she's giving something back to the men and women who are serving their country.

"We all share in the democratic process because we have the freedom to stand up and speak out without fear of retribution," said Bochcia. "But freedom isn't free and our sons and our daughters are paying the price every day some with their very lives. So, how do you pay that bill? I haven't figured that one out yet, so every little penny I can throw in there, I do."

For more information on Terry Wolf's organization, click here.

To learn more about Steve Albin's organization, click here.

To learn about Operation Noble Foster, which fosters cats for members of the military, click here.