Military family deployed, forced to leave beloved dog behind
PACIFIC, Wash. -- Katie Garberding wants help reuniting Calvin, a 6-year-old Chesapeake Bay /Golden Retriever mix, with his family.
Calvin belongs to Garberding’s daughter Helen Bingaman, whose military family moved to Belgium earlier this month. Despite the family’s love for their dog, they could not afford to fly him overseas.
“A few weeks ago my family hugged me and kissed me as they said their goodbyes,” Garberding wrote on behalf of Calvin. “I know that they didn’t want to leave me.”
Garberding is now collecting donations to send Calvin to Belgium. She says her grandchildren desperately miss him.
When 4-year-old Lily got sick after the flight to her new home, Garberding says she kept asking for the family dog.
“They’re all devastated,” Garberding says. “They’re in a new country where they don’t know anybody and they’re not complete.”
Garberding says Calvin will always have a home with her, but she can tell he misses his family. She says the retriever has “sad eyes” and often sits in her driveway watching cars pass by.
“It’s almost like he’s waiting for them to come get him,” Garberding says.
Not unlike other military families, the Bingamans have moved around a lot. Helen and her husband Ryan enlisted in the Army in 1997. She left the service shortly after her 11-year-old son Thomas was born. The family has lived in New York, Texas and Germany while Ryan was deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan.
Three years ago Ryan was transferred to Joint Base Lewis-McChord and the family moved to Washington, Helen’s home state. That’s when Calvin came into their lives.
The dog had been living with Helen’s sister Emily until she moved to an apartment that didn’t allow pets. As soon as the Bingamans took Calvin in, Garberding says he adopted their three children as his “puppies.”
“He is so gentle with the kids,” Garberding says. “He is the rock that keeps them together.”
But when the Bingamans were preparing to move to Belgium, they learned it would costs between $1,100 and $2,000 to fly Calvin with them. Helen asked her mother to babysit Calvin until the family could save enough money to fly him over.
To help reunite the family, Garberding has created a savings account at Chase Bank to collect the funds needed to fly Calvin to Belgium and back again when the family returns to the United States in 3 years. She hopes to raise $4,000. Garberding says any funds that are not used on Calvin’s flight will be donated to the Auburn Humane Society.
“We love him, but my grandkids need him,” Garberding says. “They need as much consistency as possible.”
Readers can help Calvin by contacting Garberding at imadaisylady@aol.com.
slumlord420 you been hittin the pipe way to much the man and his family are serving our country so you can sit in oregon smoking your medical mairjuana and not caring about anything except when your next crop will be ready to harvest. I applaud the woman for trying to help reunite the pet with its owner if I wasnt broke and disabled I would kick them as much money as possible to help out. I could never leave my dog behind its better company then 99% of the stoned out people in oregon are lolÂ
"Military family deployed"... Wow are they still sending Americans overseas to die for absolutely nothing that has anything to do with the defence of our country or "fighting for our freedom" (freedom, huh?).
@FrankCastle They deployed to Belgium. Not war.
If you collect more than you need, why not just let it draw interest at the rate of .0000000001 percent until the dog needs to return, unless of course you are buying a round trip ticket right off.Â
Pay for your own dog. That is so pathetic to seek donations from the public for such a cause.
@slumlord420Â I disagree.
The families of deployed and active duty military give up so much for their family members to serve our Country. My daughter had to house her dog with a friend for a year when she went to Iraq, but was able to get back to him then. These are just kids weâre talking about. The military wonât pay, which I do understand, but these kids need their family dog. $2,000.00 is a lot for a military family. I think itâs a great idea, and I hope the funds are collected so this family can be complete in a strange and foreign Country.Â
@angelgabe @slumlord420 They're not serving our country, they are serving Israel. Why do you think we attacked Iraq, anyway? Why do you think the CIA (along with Mossad) is funding the terrorist opposition forces in Syria? Why do you think we are drumming up antagonism against Iran?
yeah they are serving isreal because I remember watching the jets on the news fly into the world trade center in down town isreal.  are you off your meds ? did nurse rachette forget your dose of throzine? what world do you live in? those people are serving our country putting their life on the line to ensure the freedom of paranoidal people to spew conspiriacy theroys on blogs give them a break. have you done one thing for a returning service member? I didnt think so!
@MP SGT @FrankCastle Thank you, MP SGT. So did my daughter! She had to leave just as she was training to go out to the Iraqi women to help them and understand their culture so as to be better at it.
FrankCastle: it might be the intention of those in the highest positions that are filled with greed and only interested in other agendas, but I can assure you, those who volunteered and deployed to go places like Iraq and Afghanistan went there to HELP OTHERS against oppressive governments, and situations they felt were unfair.
@FrankCastle I fought for the Iraqi people.
They fight for NOTHING other than greed and empire.
@Jerry I guess only they know who they serve. As far as why we attacked Iraq that would be because we have a gullible public and some evil people in power. And what the CIA is doing in Syria is the same thing they were doing in Libya and Egypt-- turning corrupt dictatorships into Islamist dictatorships. As far as Iran goes, Obama likes it the way it is. If he wanted regime change there he could have done it in 2009.