A Marine and His Dog

We’ve all heard the stories and seen the movies of loyal animals who find their way back to their owners after being separated. This one isn’t so different, except it has a twist: the “owner” is a Marine named Maj. Brian Dennis stationed in Iraq and the loyal pet is the alpha dog in a roaming pack, named Nubs. At first Nubs wanted nothing to do with the Marine, but after some time and a lot of patience he came around (as seen in the picture above!), and the two formed a bond.

Fast forward a bit and Maj. Dennis and his unit have to move 70 miles away, and since they can’t keep pets the dog would have to stay behind. Except he didn’t:

The time came, however, for Dennis’ unit to relocate 70 miles from Nubs’ home fort. He may have wanted to take Nubs with the unit, Dennis wrote in one one of his e-mails home, but there were too many dogs to rescue and keeping a canine was against the rules. As always, Nubs sprinted alongside the Hummers as they pulled away for what Dennis assumed was the last time he would see the dog.

Two days later, Nubs wandered inexplicably in below-freezing conditions into Dennis’ new camp, shocking the Marine unit. “I won’t even address the gauntlet he had to run of dog packs, wolves, and God knows what else to get here,” Dennis wrote. “When he arrived he looked like he’d just been through a war zone. Uh, wait a minute, he had.”

Nubs’ miraculous journey forced the Marine’s hand, and Dennis and his fellow Marines unanimously decided to keep the animal, building a doghouse at the camp. When two military police officers told Dennis the dog could not stay at the camp, he decided the only way to properly keep the animal was to get it to the United States.

Read the rest of the story here.