Dog’s Days of War, Peace

The dog’s name is Lava, but on Monday, his owner’s temptation was strong to change it to Lucky.

“When you go from Fallouja to Rancho Santa Fe, you’re very lucky,” said Lava’s owner, Marine Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman.

When Kopelman’s fellow Marines found the dog, it was scrawny, flea-ridden and shivering -- “just waiting to die, I guess,” Kopelman said -- in an abandoned house in the Iraqi city where U.S. and Iraqi forces were fighting insurgents.

At the time, Kopelman was serving as liaison between the 1st Marine Division and the Iraqi forces during the battle for Fallouja.

“He had survived bombs and bullets and come out fine,” Kopelman said, “so I figured, ‘Let’s get him out of here. He deserves something better.’ ”

But getting an animal out of Iraq isn’t easy. Military regulations ban troops from adopting pets as well as prohibit any animals other than military working dogs to travel on military planes.

Lava’s name was given to him by the Marines who found him; they are from a unit in Hawaii known as the Lava Dogs. For a while, he lived at Camp Fallouja, the Marine base just outside the war-torn city.

Navy Seabees built him a doghouse, but when living on base became untenable, Lava went to live with NPR reporter Anne Garrels in Baghdad. Garrels, NPR producer Ben Gilbert and an Iraqi known only as Varham cared for the pup.

Lava -- a shepherd mix who weighs 30 pounds and is about 6 months old -- got his vaccinations and an international health certificate from the Iraqi ministry of agriculture, possibly the first translated from Arabic to English. But Garrels was transferred to a new assignment outside Iraq and Lava’s future looked dim.

Enter the Iams Co., a pet food manufacturer; Vohne Liche Kennels, which provides dogs for the military; and the Helen Woodward Animal Center, a nonprofit based in Rancho Santa Fe. Kopelman’s fiancee, Ellen Stiefler, lives in Rancho Santa Fe, about 20 miles north of San Diego.

With the help of someone who prefers to remain anonymous, Lava was taken to the Green Zone, the heavily fortified area where U.S. and coalition officials work and live.

Vohne Liche employee Brian Griffith took responsibility for Lava. An overland trip to Jordan was a bust when border guards refused to let Lava into the country. It seemed more negotiations and more paperwork were required.

Finally, last Thursday, Lava flew with a Vohne Liche dog handler from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan. After a layover, Lava and his handler took a Royal Jordanian flight to Chicago and arrived Saturday.

An American Airlines flight brought dog and handler to San Diego on Sunday.

On Monday, after spending the night at the Woodward center, Lava was formally reunited with Kopelman and was introduced to Stiefler and the couple’s 8-year-old retriever, Lulu.

Kopelman said the attraction between the Marines and Lava was immediate. “What’s not to like about him?” he said. “I just made it a mission to get him back to the States.”