When U.S. Army Sgt. Travis Law of Carrollton received his orders last year to come home from Iraq, he couldn’t have been happier, except for one thing. He didn’t have a way to get his battlefield adopted dog, Moses, back to America.

“I couldn’t stand to leave Moses there. He was part of the family,” Law said.

Law and his buddies found out about the SPCA International’s Operation Baghdad Pups, a program for soldiers to bring their pets home. However, it would cost $1,000 per dog. He said members of his unit donated money and one soldier’s family in Kentucky held a fundraiser.

“We were able to raise enough money to bring Moses, and another dog, Homey, back to the states,” he said.

Law said the SPCA labeled Moses as a kurdish shepherd, but he looks like a German shepherd. His estimated age is 2 years.

Law and Moses will be featured on the Carroll County Humane Society’s float in today’s Fourth of July People’s Parade through downtown Carrollton. The float’s theme is a salute to the military and their animals.

“ I understand that this is an increasingly common thing,” said Teresa Leslie, president of the Carroll County Humane Society. “Lots of soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan have worked to ship the dogs they have adopted back to America. There are many inspiring stories about the enduring bonds between soldiers and their dogs — those they work with, those they have to leave at home and those they encounter while deployed.”

Law said he first enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1992, serving with the 82nd Airborne at Ft. Bragg, N.C.

“I got out of service in 1997 and moved to Carrollton,” he said. “I started working with the Gwinnett County Fire Department.”

The events of Sept. 11, 2001, aroused his patriotic spirit and he re-enlisted with the Alabama Army National Guard’s 20th Special Forces Group.

“We were called up and went to Iraq in 2010,” Law said. “We were outside our area patrolling one day when we found Moses.”

He said the puppy had been treated badly by the civilians there.

“We picked him up and took him back to our fire base in the Diyala province,” he said. “He stayed with us the whole time and pretty much became a member of our team.”

Law said the dogs had to be quarantined for two weeks in Baghdad, then flown to Washington, D.C., and quarantined another 20 days, in addition to being neutered, up to date on all inoculations and worm treatments and having an ID chip implanted.

He said the process has to be sponsored by a pet rescue group, so Woodstock Animal Foundation, Simpsonville, Ky., an organization operated by one soldier’s family, was the sponsor.

“I went to Kentucky to pick Moses up after he arrived there in December,” Law said.

Operation Baghdad Pups began in 2007 after SPCA International received a request from a soldier to get a dog his regiment had adopted out of Iraq. At the time, it was against military regulations to befriend an animal in a war zone. After many months of negotiations, SPCA International was able to get the dog to the United States to reunite with his soldier owner. Operation Baghdad Pups was organized to help other soldiers bring their pets back to the states. Since then, other groups have been formed to help soldiers bring their pets home, including one named The Puppy Rescue Mission.