Home for Bandit after plea in E&S
A dog who was rescued from war-torn Iraq by a Black Country security worker has been found a new home.
Bandit spent six months in quarantine after being sent over to England by a 36-year-old Wednesbury woman, Louise Hastie.
Louise received three offers of homes for Bandit after the Express & Star told her story last week.
She has sent two dogs and five cats to live with her parents in the Black Country, all of whom were rescued from the streets of Baghdad and Tikrit.
Louise, a former pupil of Alumwell Comprehensive School, Walsall, works in Baghdad as a clerk for a private security firm. Known to friends as the Baghdad Cat Lady, she first went to Iraq in 2003 when she was a lance corporal with the Territorial Army.
The animal lover started picking stray cats and dogs off the streets, taming them and sending them home to Wednesbury – via a lengthy spell in quarantine.
Cats Felix, Pudding and Mr Googles and dogs Eden and Zeus have now settled into their new surroundings.
The animals are cared for at Tophat N'Tail kennels, in Solihull, before her parents, Brian and Sheila, take them in.
The couple have no more room at their Wednesbury home and so Louise appealed for a new owner for Bandit, an eight-month-old mongrel. Would-be owners got in touch with her through her website after reading about Bandit in the Express & Star.
Louise said: "Once I had vetted the people that applied for him I got it down to a shortlist of three people.
"Some of them visited him, a decision was made and Bandit now has a new family.
"Without the story having been in the Express & Star it is very likely I would have had to have him put to sleep as I could not face leaving him in kennels for much longer."
Anyone wanting to support the cats and dogs that Louise has re-homed can visit www.baghdadcatrescue.com for details.
