Saving Cinnamon: An Author's Journey to Bring a Puppy Home

Cinnamon, a puppy raised near an American military base in Afghanistan, came into author Christine Sullivan's life in an unusual fashion. "My brother [Mark Feffer] actually met her when he was deployed in 2006," she told Paw Nation. "She was alone on a base from a very young age, probably 3 or 4 months old. She was quite a surprise to him, being on a military base where you wouldn't expect to see a little puppy running loose."

The homeless canine is the subject of a new memoir by Sullivan, "Saving Cinnamon: The Amazing True Story of a Missing Military Puppy and the Desperate Mission to Bring Her Home". The book documents Sullivan's family's struggle to bring the tawny dog home when Feffer's service in the Middle East ended.

During Feffer's tenure in Afghanistan, Cinnamon became part of the family for him and other American troops stationed at his base. Cinnamon and the soldiers provided each other with "love and encouragement," and no one wanted to see her left behind when they were all rotated out to go home or to other bases. The group decided that Feffer would adopt her and send her to the U.S., aided by a dog handler who was to ensure that she got to Chicago safely.

"We had folks to meet [the handler] in Chicago," says Sullivan, "but he got off the plane and mumbled something about losing Cinnamon along the way."

Feffer, Sullivan and other family members were crushed. After her brother's initial search to find Cinnamon was unsuccessful, Sullivan offered to help. She reached out to animal welfare contacts that she'd met while helping with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in Louisiana.

"I'm just very empathetic when it comes to the plight of animals, so I reached out on a wing and a prayer," Sullivan told Paw Nation. The next several weeks saw the family on a continuous cycle of hope and dead ends. Sullivan's strategy was to "throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks." She explored every avenue she knew until something led her the right way.

As detailed in the book, the puppy was eventually located living with a family in Turkey, but Sullivan and Feffer were determined to bring the dog home because "she was a part of the family." Sullivan continued an e-mail campaign that she'd begun as soon as she found out that Cinnamon was lost, emailing everyone she knew and asking them to forward her message to their peers.

"It was an uncanny experience, and one that is really hard to describe," Sullivan explains. "I hope everybody in their lifetime has the experience of perfect strangers reaching out to support them. It emboldens your faith in mankind."

To find out what happened to Cinnamon, Sullivan and Feffer, pick up a copy of "Saving Cinnamon."