http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/...905321,00.html
Rescue mission
Family's sacrifice ensures dog will await serviceman's return
By Cindy Wolff
Contact
May 22, 2004
The serviceman stood inside the Tipton County Animal Shelter this month, crying softly as he said goodbye to his friend, a brown and black shepherd mix.
Petty Officer Chris Reeves didn't want to leave his dog there, but he was being deployed and he had no one to care for Mobley.
He asked the staff to write to him and tell him what happened to Mobley.
You probably won't want to know, the staff told him. This shelter, like most, kills dogs because there are just too many.
Jacque Willis with Rainbow Ridge Pet Rescue, who stops by the Tipton shelter to take pictures of the dogs to post on a Web site, heard about Mobley. On May 6, she posted a message about his plight on the Internet.
Caroline Bridges, a volunteer who acts as a foster home with Guardian Angel Pet Rescue, saw the post and sent it to her husband with a note, "Isn't this sad?"
Within seconds, her husband, Mark, replied and told her they would take the dog even though their house was full.
The Cordova couple own five dogs, including a Great Dane and a Lab mix that's learning to get along with other dogs. They also are tend ing a mama dog and her four babies, found underneath a house, and a stray mama cat and her four kittens.
Mobley joined the Bridges brigade May 7. A week later, their 14-year-old daughter, Shannon Werne, sent a letter and a collage of Mobley's pictures to the serviceman.
"When my mom called me from work and said we were rescuing a soldier's dog, I almost cried," Werne wrote.
"Just thinking about how you could (have) felt giving up your dog to a shelter, knowing you may never see him again. Well guess what? Now you do. I along with my family am honored to help you out. It's the least we could do. I will always pray for you and your friends over there. I will give Mobley a hug and kiss for you."
Since the military wouldn't tell the Bridges family where Reeves had been sent, they forwarded the letter to the U.S. Army Veterinary Services, where Mobley was a patient.
A sergeant read the letter and agreed to forward it to Reeves.
"I am sure that Petty Officer Reeves will appreciate this once he hears of it," Sgt. Kevin McGee wrote in an E-mail to the Bridges family.
"And it just may be the one thing that will bring him home alive."
- Cindy Wolff:
529-2378