Beloved pup's fate becomes international cause

Army Sgt. Gwen Beberg isn't having an easy year in Iraq. When the Spring Lake Park native bonded with an abandoned puppy found whimpering in a burning trash heap in Baghdad, she wanted to make sure the black-and-white mutt named Ratchet made it home with her.

On Oct. 1, Beberg placed 6-month-old Ratchet on an Army convoy to the Baghdad airport, where he was to be flown to her parents' home in Minnesota by a rescue group called Operation Baghdad Pups. But the dog was taken away by an Army officer before it reached the airplane. Beberg's family and Operation Baghdad Pups officials now fear Ratchet will be shot.

Beberg's sorrow has become an international cause célèbre, with online petitions signed by almost 8,000 people worldwide, bloggers taking up Ratchet's plight and a story in a London newspaper.

Beberg, who is scheduled to leave Iraq by the end of this month, also has signed one of the Internet petitions.

"Please, please let my dog come home! Ratchet is everything to me!" she wrote on thepetitionsite.com.

"I couldn't have made it through this deployment without his wagging tail and understanding eyes. This is unbelievably important to me, my family, my friends, and even perfect strangers who have taken up the cause."

Army regulations forbid soldiers in Iraq to keep pets, said an Army spokeswoman at the 101st Airborne Division's headquarters in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. She said she was not familiar with the particulars of Beberg's case and could not comment on it.

Gwen Beberg, 28, enlisted in the Army for a three-year stint while she was still a student at Luther College in Iowa. After graduation, she joined the 101st Airborne, serving in the motor pool. Her three-year enlistment was extended by the Army's Stop-Loss policy last year and she was sent to Iraq.

Though Beberg has not been on the front lines, serving in a war zone has been traumatic, her mother said. Ratchet has been a comfort.

"There are a lot of ways of being scarred other than the physical," Pat Beberg said. "My daughter has had a really tough time over there, living in those circumstances, and the dog has been just a godsend to her."

Pat Beberg has called the offices of Rep. Keith Ellison and Sen. Amy Klobuchar for help, but it's not clear what will happen. She also said it is not clear where Ratchet is, but he apparently is still alive.

"We're all sending e-mails back and forth," she said. "Everyone is working on this. I know the military has its rules, but I think it could be some very positive PR if they were to revise and review that ruling ... The military is very concerned about post-traumatic stress and high rates of suicide. When my daughter called here a week ago, she had trouble talking on the phone. She's devastated."

"There are commanding officers there who are animal lovers and recognize that these animals make a difference," Crisp said. "We've had high-ranking officials bring out animals themselves."

Ratchet, she said, has been the only animal confiscated once the evacuation process had begun, but at least 36 other animals that soldiers were trying to get out of Iraq have been destroyed.

"To me, it's totally senseless, because they took away something that could help soldiers, and this just causes more trauma for them," Crisp said.

Gwen Beberg is supposed to depart Iraq for Kentucky sometime around Oct. 25 and leave the Army in March. She is hoping Ratchet will be waiting for her in Spring Lake Park.

"We have the kennel back up, the dog dishes ready," said her mother.

Gwen Beberg, Crisp said, "really needs this dog to be well. I hope we can get him."