No Buddy Left Behind: Bringing U.S. Troops' Dogs and Cats Safely Home from the Combat Zone

The love of a dog or cat helps heal soldiers’ emotional trauma. One very special woman and program brings them back together after the war.

No Buddy Left Behind is an animal book with a difference. It is not only about rescued dogs and cats, but also about U.S. soldiers trying to survive the horrors of war and readjust to life back home. It unveils the life-altering relationships American troops serving in the Middle East share with the stray dogs and cats they rescue from the brutalities of war. Overcoming monumental obstacles, Terri Crisp makes it her mission to save these wartime “buddies,” get them out of danger, and bring them home to the soldiers who love them.So, how does someone get animals out of a country at war when normal resources are lacking and every step of a plan to transport animals could get you arrested, kidnapped, or blown apart? As Crisp soon learns, each rescue mission from first to last is a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants experience, and no animal is truly safe until its paws touch American soil. Terri and her team have saved the lives of 223 dogs and forty-two cats befriended by military personnel since February 2008—and No Buddy Left Behind finally tells this story.

Terri Crisp is the author of Out of Harm’s Way and Emergency Animal Rescue Stories. As the Program Manager for SPCA International’s Operation Baghdad Pups, she has made thirty-one trips to Iraq and Afghanistan since the program’s inception. She has been interviewed on the OPRAH SHOW, national TV news programs, and morning talk shows, and numerous national publications have run stories on her work. To learn more about Terri and Operation Baghdad Pups, visit www.spcai.org.



Cindy Hurn is a freelance writer who has also worked as a volunteer with large and small animals. Her essays, short stories and poetry have been published in The Sacramento Bee, Poetry Now Magazine, and Calaveras Station Literary Journal.