Donations save SEAL's deployment dogs

Meet Logar, one of the two dogs Special Operator 2nd Class Sam Landoe will be bringing home from Afghanistan after a fundraising campaign. // Courtesy photo

When Special Operator 2nd Class (SEAL) Sam Landoe returns from Afghanistan, he’ll have two furry, familiar faces waiting for him, thanks to a fundraising effort to bring home puppies his team adopted while deployed.

Guardians of Rescue, whose Operation No Buddy Left Behind program raises funds to help troops bring home dogs they’ve adopted during deployment, reached its $6,000 goal to bring Logar and Falcor to the U.S. on March 12, spokeswoman Cher Murphy told Navy Times.

“They have been an important part of our tour here and we want to keep them a part of our lives,” Landoe said in a March 10 news release.

The dogs will live in Washington state with Landoe’s parents, until he returns home to San Diego.

The rescue raised half of the funds over two days, after a Scoop Deck post about the effort went viral. The organization had raised $3,100 as of the morning of March 11, before the article was posted, Murphy said. By late the next night, they passed the $6,000 mark.

The SEALs adopted Logar from a village elder during an outreach meeting. Falcor came hours later, brought to the team by Afghan locals.

The $6,000 goes to Nowzad Dogs, an Afghanistan shelter that facilitates stateside adoptions.