Two more troops' dogs coming home

More than $6,000 was donated in the drive to help Army Staff Sgt. Steven Radloff of Waukegan to send his dog from Afghanistan to the United States.
The dog, Bear, was rescued from a bird cage by Radloff and his unit while they were on a mission in Kandahar.

Interest in Bear's saga, which spiked after a picture of the black lab mix ran with a story in The News-Sun, led to donations that will not only fund Bear's trip to the U.S., but will also fund the rescue of two other military pets as well, according to Orphans of the Storm spokeswoman Jackie Borchew.

A Washington Post correspondent in Afghanistan, Pamela Constable, who has helped stray dogs and cats in Kabul find shelter and adoptive homes, will be the guest speaker at the Orphans of the Storm annual benefit dinner next month.

Constable, with the help of the Riverwoods-based Orphans animal shelter, helped Radloff arrange his transport back to the U.S. for his dog. Constable, founder and president of The Afghan Stray Animal League, helped in Afghanistan with the effort to send Bear to Fort Bragg, N.C., where Radloff's unit is expected to return soon.

For the past two years, Constable has provided shelter, veterinary care and adoptive homes for stray dogs and cats in Kabul through a project she founded called Tigger House.
At the Orphans of the Storm benefit, she will discuss her work helping strays in a city and country torn by war, isolation and cultural taboos about animals.

Constable was assigned to Kabul after the fall of the Taliban in early 2002. In 2004, she found an old house in the city and converted it into a small private shelter and clinic.
When soldiers, aid workers, diplomats and others find strays they want to help and adopt, Tigger House, helps arrange shipment overseas.

"Our philosophy is to help one animal at a time, and approach one person at a time, because otherwise we would become overwhelmed by the enormity of what we cannot do," Constable said.

Constable is also the founder and president of The Afghan Stray Animal League, a tax-exempt non-profit public charity which she operates out of her home in Virginia. The organization exists solely to support the Kabul project.