“What kind of dog is that?\u201d the woman asked me. There was a slight accent to her voice that made me pause for a moment.<\/p>\n
People were always surprised when Fred ran out from the back room to greet them at the men\u2019s clothing store where I worked, a job to pay the bills while I finished my degree at Georgetown University.<\/p>\n
The woman\u2019s daughter bent down and scratched Fred behind his ears. \u201cHe\u2019s from Afghanistan,\u201d I said. \u201cI served there when I was in the Marines.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a flicker of interest in her dark eyes, so I kept talking.<\/p>\n
Inside our Marine compound, we\u2019d been under near constant attack. My nerves were shot. In the afternoons, the temperature would reach 115 and the Registan Desert, Sangin District, Helmand Province, fell quiet. There was a stark beauty to the desert you never get used to. I was staring into the heat when I saw him, short legs, floppy ears, trotting across the compound to a shady spot. He wasn\u2019t like the other dogs I\u2019d seen in Afghanistan. Those dogs ran in packs. This guy was fending for himself in the middle of a war zone.<\/p>\n
I grabbed a piece of beef jerky and walked over to him. He sat but watched my every step. I paused. \u201cHow\u2019s it going?\u201d I said. His eyes were so expressive, almost human. I heard a noise…thwap, thwap, thwap. <\/em>A cloud of dust kicked up behind him. He was wagging his tail.<\/p>\n He was maybe eight months old. His fur\u2014mostly white, with large spots of light orange-brown\u2014was covered with black bugs the size of dimes. I offered the jerky and he took it. I dug my fingers into his fur, coarse and matted in dust. He leaned into me, and I wondered if he\u2019d ever been petted. I\u2019d always wanted a dog<\/a> as a kid, but my family was into cats.<\/p>\n It felt as if I\u2019d been chosen <\/em>to look out for this little guy. Before the Marines, I\u2019d never taken on a lot of responsibility. In high school, I hadn\u2019t pushed myself. I\u2019d graduated anyway. That\u2019s what had drawn me to the Marines. I wanted to find a place that would hold me to a higher standard. I\u2019d hoped it would help me figure out what God had planned for my life.<\/p>\n