Soldier Fights to Bring Home Iraq Pup

A sergeant who saved a puppy from a pile of burning trash in Baghdad is fighting to be allowed to bring her beloved pet home, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune. An Army officer took 6-month-old Ratchet off a convoy to Baghdad airport where the pooch was to be sent to her parents' Minneapolis home by animal rescue group Operation Baghdad Pups. 

Nearly 10,000 people have a signed a petition asking the military make an exception to its no-pets rule for the pup. "Please, please let my dog come home! Ratchet is everything to me!" wrote the sergeant, who fears the puppy will be killed as a pest if the dog is left behind when she leave Iraq this month. "I couldn't have made it through this deployment without his wagging tail and understanding eyes." (More US military stories.)