Only a few weeks after my BIL left to do a tour in Afghanistan last September, he called my sister to ask if he could bring his friend home when he returned. His friend, a little ragamuffin stray named Mushe.
My sister - who is already a momma to three dogs, two cats, a few birds, a couple tanks of fish, a chinchilla, and I think she might still have her pet rat... oh, and not to mention a 6 year old girl and a new born baby boy - said "Are you crazy?!?!"
Her main concern was adopting an unpredictable stray when she had a new baby. (Not so much the fact that she's already running a pet store out of her house.) She also wasn't keen about all the red tape and the fact that it would cost about $3,000 to bring this dog back to Canada. 
BIL sucked it up and took 'no' for an answer... but, it looks like he wasn't the only one who fell in love with the pup.
He sent along these two articles today. The first was published back in November, and the second is a December follow up. Looks like Mushe has found a home in Canada after all. 
AFGHANISTAN: Mushe, a stray, befriended Gord Martin's unit and has even gone on patrol
CHATHAM -- A Chatham soldier serving in Afghanistan wants to bring a four-legged friend home.
Cpl. Gord Martin is working with his mother, Ruth Martin, to work out details to back Mushe, a stray that befriended a group of Canadian soldiers based in Kandahar.
The puppy was found in rough condition last July and brought back to the base, said Martin, of the Petawawa-based 2 Military Police Unit.
"She's like our dog -- she lives here. She kind of became the family pet," he said from Afghanistan.
Stray and nuisance pets found by soldiers in the Afghan war zone have grabbed headlines before, especially in the United States where one -- a dog named Ratchet -- inspired a massive online petition to allow a soldier to bring the pooch home after the U.S. military said no.
Like a loyal pet, Mushe is protective of her new family, especially when she joins them on foot patrol.
"She's an extra set of eyes and ears out there," Martin said. "She clears buildings and she spots things and she keeps the locals away from us. She really is unbelievable."
Martin said any male, from young teens to the elderly, are a risk to be a suicide bomber. But Mushe's presence is often enough to keep people back.
Afghan people are generally afraid of dogs "here are primarily bred for fighting," Martin said.
"One of the meanest things you can find out, (is) there is somebody's dog that is not on a leash."
Martin said Mushe recently wandered off and ended up going on patrol with an American unit. He said a captain admitted being a little worried when Mushe unexpectedly showed up. But that soon changed.
"(The captain) said by the time they got to where they were going and they got back . . . he thought she was the most amazing dog he'd ever seen," Martin said.
The captain asked Martin if they had trained the dog for patrol. He said the dog just figured it out on her own.
Martin, due back in Canada in a few months, wants to find a home for Mushe in the Chatham area. He has a family in mind, but needs to cut through the red tape first.
 Ethan Baron, Vancouver Province

PASAB, Afghanistan - An Afghan war dog that has protected NATO soldiers fighting here is moving on to a more peaceful life in Canada.
The friendly white dog named Mushe, whose furry mug was splashed across Canadian newspapers in mid-November, will go to live on an Ontario farm next spring when the two military police soldiers who have adopted her finish their tours.
Mushe has become a life-protecting companion for those soldiers, their comrades, and an Afghan police detachment at their small outpost in one of the most violent areas of southern Afghanistan. She goes on patrol, entering compounds before the soldiers and police, barking if anyone is there. She keeps Afghan men of fighting age at bay, letting only small children near the soldiers and police.
After Mushe's story was published in Canwest newspapers across Canada in a story on pets at Canadian bases, Canada's military brass decided to grant approval for the dog to be flown to Canada, where she'll live in Chatham, Ont.
"Family friends have a large farm back home," said Cpl. Gordon Martin of 2 Military Police unit in Petawawa, Ont., who, with Cpl. Nikki Bucci of the same unit, first proposed bringing their wartime companion to Canada. "They have a few hundred acres so they have all the space and the room for her. She can't be penned up - she's not a dog used to being in close quarters. Having her run around on the farm - I think she'll feel right at home."
In early December, Bucci had travelled from their outpost in war-ravaged Zhari district to the NATO base at Kandahar Airfield, and while there, made initial inquiries about Mushe's prospects of moving to Ontario.
"A couple of days later we got the phone call from HQ which said it was approved," Martin said.
The veterinary contingent at the airfield base, who are responsible for dogs used in bomb-sniffing and security operations, have agreed to provide Mushe with the shots she'll need for clearance to live in Canada, Martin said.
The born-and-raised Afghan dog's street smarts exceed those of at least one specially trained import. On an operation last week, an American bomb-sniffing German shepherd on its first mission away from the NATO base found a container holding liquid residue from insurgents' homemade explosive. The animal promptly began lapping it up, a few hours later suffering an uncomfortable bout of diarrhea.
Cpl. Nikki Bucci, left, and Cpl. Gordon Martin hold Mushe on Nov. 15 at a police training outpost in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Soldiers saved the local dog from a bullet, and now depend on her to lead patrols into Taliban country.