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Dog from Iraq Carries Soldier's Legacy
by: Detroit Free Press
Yelping, jumping, squirming and showing amazing agility despite having only three legs, Laia, a 9-month-old puppy rescued from Iraq, now runs freely outside her Brighton home.
She is a survivor.
Laia survived a war, a broken leg, the death of her owner, a risky convoy across Iraq, and an amputation and wound up in the home of Jerry and Colleen Deaven of Brighton.
She is just a mutt, but her story spans the globe.
It is the story of a guy and his dog. Maj. Steven Hutchison fell in love with the puppy, but at age 60 became the oldest Army soldier to die during this war.
It is the story of a woman, Terri Crisp, who has made 23 trips to Iraq, trying to save the pets of U.S. soldiers.
It is the story of a grieving mother, Peggy Loving of Romulus, who found a moment of solace when she met Hutchison's beloved dog. When she left Laia, Loving was in tears because holding the puppy felt to her like holding her son.
It is the story of adoption. The Deaven family home has a massive yard, where Laia can run free, and plenty of love.
"We feel like we are taking care of her for Maj. Hutchison, for all the guys in the unit," Colleen Deaven said.
Her husband, who works for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, agreed.
Stray's global journey home
At night, when the war cooled down and the sky above Iraq filled with stars, Army Maj. Steven Hutchison slept with his arms wrapped around Laia, a stray, yellow puppy.
It was against the rules to have a dog in an Army camp, but Hutchison hated rules, especially the ones that didn't make any sense to him.
A senior officer told Hutchison to get rid of the dog, but he didn't listen, not at all.
Hutchison was an old, crusty vet who had served two tours in Vietnam and came out of retirement at the tender age of 59 to fight with the boys in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was a complex man -- smart and stubborn. He had a doctorate in psychology but loved being on the front lines.
Countless soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have adopted dogs and cats. For some, it is the one thing that helps it feel like home.
"Whenever Laia was around," Hutchison's "demeanor and personality changed 1,000%," Sgt. Andrew Hunt wrote in an e-mail to Hutchison's family. "He was never without a smile; he was so much happier in life."
When the same senior officer ordered Hutchison to get rid of the dog or face disciplinary action, Hutchison sent her into hiding with a friend at a far outpost, Forward Operating Base Minden, a camp on the border of Iran.
The puppy broke free and ran away, returning one day to FOB Minden with a broken leg.
Then, tragedy. Hutchison was killed when a roadside bomb exploded May 10 near his truck. His death would become national news because of his age. At 60, he became the oldest soldier to die in the Iraq war.
A few hours later, two Army representatives walked solemnly into a small, tidy home in Romulus to notify Peggy Loving, his 82-year-old mother. She came out of her bedroom, saw them in the kitchen and she knew. She started to scream. "No!"
Volunteer trip fateful
The day Hutchison was killed, Jerry Deaven arrived at FOB Minden. And soon, his life and Hutchison's legacy would become intertwined in the most surprising way.
Deaven works for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Detroit. He volunteered to go to Iraq to track down terrorist funding.
The morning after Hutchison died, Deaven saw a yellow dog chained up outside the operations tent. "She was a cutie, just a puppy and a good-natured dog," Deaven said.
The little mutt started to wag her way into his heart.
"What's going to happen to her, now that the major is gone?" Deaven asked. A few members of Hutchison's team said they wanted to take her, but they were getting redeployed. "If I didn't take the dog, they would have had to put the dog down," he said.
Laia walked with a limp. Her right hind end leg was broken in the joint area. "I worked with the Army medics, and we put a cast on her," Deaven said, in an effort to save her leg.
Deaven loves dogs; he had lost his own dog about a year earlier. George, a lovable, 7-year-old black Lab, had died unexpectedly during an operation.
He contacted his wife, Colleen, at home in Brighton. She said she wanted Laia.
As luck would have it, before Hutchison died, Hunt already had started working to send the dog back to the States, contacting the U.S. Embassy and an organization that helps soldiers in Iraq bring their dogs back home.
Laia "is in great hands," Hunt wrote to Hutchison's relatives. "She is heading to Michigan to live with a wonderful family. ... They ... understand Laia carries with her a very rich and important history and is part of a truly great man."
Operation Baghdad Pups
Nine armed security officers, wearing protective gear and riding in three Suburbans, drove from Baghdad to Basra, Iraq, to pick up Laia and two other dogs. The $6,000 two-day mission was by paid for by Operation Baghdad Pups, a program run through the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International.
"There may be some people who say, 'You are wasting all that time and money and putting people's lives in danger to go pick up a dog?' " said Terri Crisp, the program manager.
"But these dogs are so much more. ... They have gotten them through some incredibly tough things. ...A lot of the guys will say that when they go out on patrol, the closer they get back to base, they look forward to getting there, because the dog or cat is waiting for them."
Crisp flew from Kuwait to Baghdad to pick up Laia. They then flew from Baghdad to Kuwait, to Amsterdam and to Washington, D.C., and finally on to Detroit.
In early June, Colleen Deaven and her three children met Laia for the first time at Metro Airport. The dog seemed overwhelmed. She still limped.
Colleen Deaven took Laia to a vet, trying to fix her leg, which never healed correctly.
"They tried ... but it was such an old injury that it just didn't take," she said. "So they amputated in July. Within a day, she was walking around. Now, she doesn't even notice."
Tangible link to son
About three weeks ago, Hutchison's mother, Peggy Loving, sat in a car, heading toward Brighton. "There were 50 million butterflies in my stomach," she said.
She walked into the house and instantly knew what her son saw in the animal.
"He would have fallen in love with anything as long as it had four legs and a face," Loving said. "He just loved dogs."
There was a part of Loving who wanted to take her son's dog, but she knows she can't. "My house isn't big enough for a dog that size. I just couldn't take care of her."
She stayed for about an hour, the emotions stirred, the grief still raw. This was more than meeting a dog. "It was kind of like putting your hand on Steve," Loving said.
Walking out of the house, she started to cry. "I just hated leaving him, leaving her," she said, in a profound mix of words.
Keeping alive a memory
The Deavens feel as if they have a different kind of mission now. They are caretakers, keeping alive a memory. For Hutchison. For his team.
Several members of Hutchison's team plan to visit Laia. "I was so impressed with those guys," Jerry Deaven said. "We worked 16 or 18 hours a day, never had a day off, and these guys never complained. They just stepped up and dealt with it. It makes you proud of your country to work with guys like that."
And Loving has found peace. She keeps a picture of Laia in her bedroom. On the kitchen table, an electronic frame flashes photos of her son.
"Laia is where Steve would want her," she said. "I love these people."
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