“He started squirming all over and leaping up and down because he was so pleased to see me.” Cameron Marin says, “He even pooped on the carpet!”
“Man’s best buddy” has recently taken on a whole new meaning.
Cameron Marin, a US service member stationed in Erbil, Iraq, brought home a very special companion he met in March while stationed there: a puppy named Sunny.
Marin stated in a statement that while stationed in Iraq, he and his fellow service members had “saw a few dogs” close to an active runway, “but I noticed quickly that Sunny was very cunning.”
“I’d see Sunny along the runway every morning when I went up the ramp to prepare the aircraft.” He would lay in the mud to remain cool because it was so hot outdoors,” he added. “I began calling him and approaching him.” Sunny eventually approached me with his funny gallop and immediately allowed me to pet him.”
“He kept coming over after that, and I fed him every day,” Marin recalled.
Sunny “disappeared for almost a month,” according to Marin, but he “showed up again one day” and became a part of the soldier’s “daily routine” during his deployment.
Marin couldn’t handle the notion of leaving his canine pal behind when it was time to return to his New Hampshire home. That’s when SPCA International came to the rescue.
“I grew connected to him and started looking for methods to bring him home with me,” the soldier explained. “I found SPCA International and applied to the Operation Baghdad Pups: Worldwide initiative at that time.”
“As a result of it, I was linked with the local Erbil animal shelter, and they assisted in making it happen,” Marin explained. “I’ll never forget the day I had to pick him up and take him to the animal shelter. Sunny was laying in the mud as usual, and my friend pulled up alongside him in his truck. I helped him into the truck from the mud. I held him close because I knew he was scared as he buried his head in my lap, coated in the muck and smelling awful.”
Sunny was flown into John F. Kennedy International Airport, where his wife picked up the pup, while Marin was still abroad. Marin returned to New Hampshire in October, and the two were reunited.
“He started squirming all over and leaping up and down because he was so pleased to see me.” He even peed on the floor!” In a press statement, Marin stated.
Sunny has also picked up some new hobbies and has a new companion in the couple’s 6-year-old Australian cattle dog, Cowboy Joe. His personality, on the other hand, hasn’t altered much.
Marin noted, “He loves to chew antlers and bones and is as silly as ever.”
