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."