Her dog disappeared during the fall of Afghanistan. Two years later, the military working dog and his Army handler reunited in the U.S.

Two decades of ready were being above.  

On a wet Saturday afternoon in Knoxville, Tennessee, in a busy gas station parking ton, U.S. Military Platoon Commander Kristen St. Pierre was reunited with anyone she hadn’t viewed because she left Afghanistan in 2019: her military operating pet dog Chase. 

“It can be incredible to be with him,” St. Pierre told CBS News, who did not know Chase’s whereabouts or even if he survived till this past November. St. Pierre cared for Chase throughout her 2019 tour of responsibility in Afghanistan and had to go away the doggy powering when she deployed. All through the drop of Afghanistan in the chaotic weeks and months that adopted as U.S. troops withdrew and Afghans fled in droves, Chase disappeared.

“Chase was a piece of house throughout our time in Afghanistan,” explained St. Pierre, who mentioned she didn’t truly comprehend how difficult stating goodbye would be. 

But many thanks to a twist of social media destiny and the willpower of Charlotte Maxwell-Jones, the American founder of Kabul Modest Animal Rescue introduced the canine and its handler alongside one another in a “moment of hope,” St. Pierre mentioned. 

By means of information and Instagram posts, St. Pierre arrived throughout Kabul Tiny Animal Rescue’s social media web page, in which she saw a photograph of Chase. St. Pierre promptly contacted Kabul Compact Animal Rescue and requested to undertake that puppy, and alongside with Maxwell-Jones, hatched a strategy to provide Chase again to the U.S. 

“Due to the fact we acquired him again final November, that’s been the prepare from Day 1,” Maxwell-Jones told CBS on arrival at Dulles Airport in D.C. But in freshly occupied Afghanistan, Maxwell-Jones has uncovered the Taliban governs underneath its individual guidelines. They had to re-sign up again and go to all of the different ministries and make confident the registration was in order. 

In 2021, almost all of their employees fled the country and Maxwell-Jones experienced to rebuild. They are the only animal rescue in Afghanistan, she explained, there aren’t that a lot of veterinarians.  She states the Taliban federal government supports rebuilding with all-male team apart from herself and a few foreign females. She and the 85 employees treatment for 250 pet dogs, about 70 cats, four tortoises, 4 chickens, seven sheep and 3 peacocks. They get requested to treatment for all sorts of animals, Maxwell-Jones explained, and they’ve been asked to export poisonous snakes and a surrendered combating camel. 

“We politely declined that one,” she mentioned. 

To get Chase to the U.S., Maxwell-Jones experienced to have him microchipped, revaccinated, examined for rabies and have other blood exams. For its rescues, the group is effective with the Taliban authorities to get export permits from the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of the Interior, border law enforcement and Ministry of Economic system, among some others.

Then Maxwell-Jones flies the animals into Dubai, and from there they coordinate the flights to D.C, in which they have to formally import the animals and go by means of the Centers for Disease Manage and Avoidance, wherever the agency checks the animals for disease right before they are introduced into the country. 

The method is exhausting and onerous, Maxwell-Jones say, but she carries on due to the fact she “thinks that animals’ life essentially issue just as significantly as other lives.”

In Afghanistan, she suggests, “There is about 10,000 humanitarian businesses, and when it comes to animals, there is us.”

Chase is settling into his new house in Fort Benning, Georgia, where St. Pierre and her spouse reside. He however “preserved have faith in in humans” and enjoys having his “tummy rubbed,” reported St. Pierre. She says receiving Chase to the United States has been surreal and shows her that “humanity is still transpiring in Afghanistan.” 

Ahmad Mukhtar contributed to this report.