Ex-Soldier Risks His Life On Secret Mission — To Save A Dog

As you read this, there's a secret rescue mission underway in the Middle East.

The exact location can't be disclosed.

The target? A skinny white street dog.

The dog was the last survivor of her unit, a pack that roamed the streets, scrounging for scraps, near a U.S. military base.

Maybe that's why the soldiers who found her decided to take her in. The rest of her pack, viewed as pests by the locals, had been killed.

The soldiers cared for the sickly dog, feeding and protecting her behind the walls of the base, and giving her a name: Ghost.

But they knew they couldn't keep Ghost forever. She had to get out of there.

"They can't move around or go to certain locations," Robert Misseri, founder of Guardians of Rescue, tells The Dodo. "They're constantly at risk. The only way to do it is to send somebody trustworthy and someone who has the experience.

"And that's when we sent our guy in."

That guy? A former U.S. special ops soldier - and volunteer at Guardians of Rescue - who can't be named for his own safety.

It won't be one of the ex-soldier's easier missions. Since the area he's going to will be restricted, he had to check in with the U.S. embassy.

Ghost will be waiting for him at a location specified by the soldiers on the ground, who are taking care of her.

"He is always in danger being there," Misseri explains. "Because if the wrong people found out that he's an American and he's bringing a dog back for our U.S. soldiers, that's a recipe for disaster."

Once the ex-soldier extracts the dog, he will stay at a hotel with her until the flight back to the U.S. can be confirmed.

Again, that will be no easy feat.

Dogs can't fly through London, England.

"So he has to take special routes," Misseri notes. "He can't fly certain airlines."

But once this mission is complete - the ex-soldier is expected to be stateside with Ghost by November 2 - there will be sighs of relief on both sides of the Atlantic.

"This unit could never be the same after having this new companion in their lives if they had to leave him behind," Misseri says. "They know what would happen to her."

Instead, Ghost will be going to the best home her rescuers in the Middle East could hope for: a military home.

Sgt. Christian Cox, one of the soldiers who cared for Ghost at the U.S. base will be adopting her. When Cox returns home, Ghost will be waiting for him, alongside his wife.

The only thing this rescue still needs is funding. Want to help? Support Ghost's rescue mission here..